A meeting was held last night that was to address the McKenzie Towne School opening. The meeting went from 5 - 6:30 , and even with this awkward time, there will still over 100 attendees. Here is a summary of the learnings:
-McKenzie Towne school is expected to be open for learning in January 2010.
-There will be MT students in Haultain (and Acadia) for the first 4 months of next school year.
-They will only be in grades 2, 3, 4 - there will be no K, grad 5, or grade 6 MT kids at Haultain. There will also be no grade 1 MT kids unless there is an existing attending sibling at the school.
-The MT kids will be in classrooms with only MT kids, there will be no integration with Haultain kids. This will allow for a smooth transition when the MT school opens.
-The MT classrooms will be staffed with MT teachers who will move with the students when their school opens.
-There will be a posting shortly for a principal and assistant-principal to staff MT
-Parents of MT students will have the option to leave their kids at Haultain if ther is room in an existing Haultain class - they will be responsible for their own transportation after MT school opens.
-Haultain will be left with 114-120 students after January (preliminary numbers only)
-There will be a CBE meeting shortly to discuss options surrounding Haultain and what the CBE may do with our school. We will hopefully have some further news about accommodation during our March 18 Council meeting.
-Any decisions that the CBE makes regarding Haultain's future will include parental engagement. (as I said before - community awareness and engagement are considerably important factors in this process, support your school as often and as vocally as you can, this blog is a great record of that support).
This meeting raised a lot of questions as well and I'm sure there are some concerned parents out there. Please use the comments section to bring up any other issues. I would love to hear your perspective of the meeting and any thoughts you have about the process.
Mackenzie Towne parents may provide feedback through an on-line feedback form to the CBE at www.cbe.ab.ca/schools/ceop/feedback.asp or by email at yourvoice@cbe.ab.ca.
A note for McKenzie Towne parents. It would be in your best interest to set up an association/society as soon as possible. I will be happy to help with materials and any guidance I can provide.
This is a sign of the times, with a growing city,etc. Its a little scary, with the uncertainty of Haultain's future. Our community and school mean so much to my family. Unfortunately too, my son (now in grade 1) has so many friends in Mackenzie Towne. It will take some adjusting next year to be separated from them in the classroom, and then see them move to a new school. Great news for Mackenzie Towne families, however!
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that as a McKenzie Towne parent, I'm not the least bit excited by this! First of all, to see our children be moved twice in 1 school year is unacceptable. It was also said that there would be no seperating of the classes (meaning all MT students would stay together) but this is not true. If some students are allowed to stay at Haultain because they have an older sibling, does this not seperate the classes? My child, who has friends that have siblings in the school, will not be in the same class as these friends. He will be bussed all the way to Acadia while his friends stay in Haultain. The ones that get to stay at Haultain will be seperated from the Haultain students, and if we're supposed to be our own school, who's funding and or raising funds to support field trips and such when our students are spread out and there's not parent council and such? For all of us with kindergarten students that have spent the year learning the busses, who's going to be responsible for teaching them where to go and how to do it safely at a new school when they move to grade 1 next year, and then who's going to teach them again when they move 1/2 way through the year? I'd also like to know when a school in the CBE has ever opened "on time"? What about the MT parents who now will have to have 2 kids in different schools because their older 1 gets to stay at Haultain, but because the younger one is going into kindergarten has to go to Acadia? Are the bus stops and times going to be the same? Lets not forget about the fact that we are the ones who now have to raise the funds for a playground and then wait to see it put in, which as we've seen with local schools can take easily 3 years? Oh yeah, and the fact that the kids probably won't have any grass?!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment 'anonymous' and I completely understand your frustration. I will ask Mr. Barkley to clarify the sibling situation as best he can and to let us know if there is any lee-way with families who will have an obvious hardship.
ReplyDeleteAs for the funding and raising funds for the MT kids at Haultain, I know we are forging new ground and it will be cumbersome working out the details but I will work with any McKenzie Towne parents who are interested in getting a society together as fast as possible so they can start to handle funds of their own. I will be in contact with AGLC and with the Alberta School Council Association shortly to see if there are any precedents that will help us through this. I will also be contacting the Acadia school council chair to see if we can all work together on some sort of cohesive plan for the future.
It will be an interesting time for all of us next year.
I attended this meeting at Haultain as well but still require some clarification regarding on important issue. It was mentioned during the presentation portion of the meeting that the Haultain teachers would be moving at the same time as their students to the new school. During the breakout session, I asked about this but was told that it was up to the teachers whether or not they move with the kids. My recent conversation with one teacher confirmed that there is little chance (perhaps even unlikely) that the the students' current teacher would move with them to the new McKenzie Towne School. The new positions at the school would be open to any applicants and preference (per union policy and guidelines) would be given to teachers with seniority, etc. I just needed to make it clear to everyone that at this point in time, there are no agreements in place with teachers to move to the new school. This will definately be a challenging move which will work out for the best. My only request is that you have the courtesy to be honest with us during the transition...
ReplyDeleteI understand how this process will present challenges to specific families and raise many questions with others. Please know that the CBE has students as their first filter for decision-making. Having said that, sometimes what is "best" is not always attainable, or easy, so in lieu of what is best, we go with what is most manageable and what is the least disruptive to students.
ReplyDeleteI will attempt to clear up the misunderstanding concerning the teacher issue. As presented at the meeting, it is true that the teachers WILL move with the students when the kids transition to the new building. It is not up to the teachers whether they move with the students. The confusion lies in the process (which will take a bit of text to clarify so please be patient).
Teachers currently employed at Haultain Memorial teach Haultain students. This year that means they teach 302 students from Queensland area as well as McKenzie Towne. Next year the population Queensland will remain close to what it is now, at approximately 120 students. As McKenzie Towne will have their own school next year (and those teachers MUST move to the new building), the roughly 200 McKenzie Towne students will not be calculated in the Haultain population. In essence, there will be two "schools" in Haultain next year; one for local students, and one for McKenzie Towne children.
What that means is Haultain will hire teachers for roughly 120 students, thereby surplussing a number of current staff due to declining numbers. Many of those teachers will have the option of applying to teach at McKenzie Towne. They will be interviewed by the new principal and if they are successful, they will begin the year in the Haultain building for the McKenzie Towne principal and school. When the school is completed, those teachers (and any others hired by the McKenzie Towne principal) will move with the students to the new building. Hiring will be done according to skill set, however only teachers with a minimum of two years continuous contract with the Board AND two years service at their current school will be considered for application (as per union and Board guidelines). The two staffs will work side by side in the Haultain building.
I agree that there will be some challenges to this move and I also agree that this will work out for the best. To this end I also believe that the CBE, School Council, and the Haultain administration will continue to be as transparent in this process as possible. We appreciate making any concerns public so that we might work to correct any misunderstandings.
Trevor Barkley, Principal,
Haultain Memorial School
It's hard to find well-informed people on this topic, however, you seem like you know what you'rе talkіng аbout!
ReplyDeleteThanks
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