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High school woes
It’s a sad thing when a community is threatened with losing its high school. For Canso, the threat has come and gone time and again. The last time Canso Academy was being considered for closure, when the regional school board was a new entity led by Guysborough’s Jack Sullivan as superintendent, the community put up a good fight, and the school remained open.
But with all the community has been through in recent years, and the facts surrounding Canso Academy’s enrollment, there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of fight left.
Projections for the 2011-12 school year are for an enrollment of only 64 students at Canso Academy, down from 80 last year. And the building isn’t in great shape, according to a SRSB report. There are fire code concerns with respect to fire doors and floor separations, elevator issues and heating system issues. The building also requires masonry repairs and window replacements. And there are significant problems with the electrical and mechanical systems.
The board is also looking at big savings in staffing costs if it closes Canso Academy. If students are transferred to Guysborough Academy, the board projects $ 275,359 in human resources savings. If students move to Fanning Education Centre as a P-12 school, the projection is for $212,516 in human resources savings.
Besides the savings, the board’s initial report on closing Canso Academy predicts benefits to students in terms of enhanced facilities, increased course options, comprehensive guidance and student services and increased access to extracurricular activities.
While parents in the other two communities with schools under review – those from the Maryvale area in particular – have been quite vocal in their opposition to the possibility of losing their schools, things have been quieter in Canso.
Part of that is likely because there is a reasonable alternative in Fanning Education Centre in neighbouring Hazel Hill. This modern facility can easily be modified into a Primary-12 school.
A fight is apt to take shape, however, if the school board chooses the second option on the table for Canso’s high school students: busing them to Guysborough Academy.
Guysborough’s high school is beautiful, but the road to get to it from Canso isn’t. Most parents don’t want their kids travelling on Route 16 everyday, especially in winter. It’s often treacherous.
Losing a community’s high school is a sad prospect, but if this is the route that will bring better facilities, programs and services to Canso’s high school students, then it’s understandable that residents would not mount an opposition. However, we urge the SRSB to take the community’s feedback into serious consideration when it comes to where these students will go. Unless those voting at the board table would be quite comfortable putting their own kids on that highway each weekday during the winter for nearly an hour each way, they should not impose this on the families of Canso, especially when a more palatable option exists just outside of town limits.
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Editorial