The Bigger Picture- Parkdale School- an Investment in Our Children’s Future
I, and most other Parkdale parents, realize that change is often required and fiscal responsibility is important. But we also realize that it is urgent to have all relevant information, avoid unintended side effects, consider other workable options and ensure we have not inadvertently missed key issues before we make profound decisions that will deeply effect many lives. In all due respect, I honestly do not think this has been adequately done in relation to the idea of closing our Parkdale school. If we really consider this bigger picture, I think we might realize that closing this particular school would be a huge mistake. Furthermore, I profoundly believe that this elementary school is actually the best place in the Charlottetown area to invest for our future and I hope we can justify this. Other parents will share their concerns and hopefully from this collective effort you will get the bigger picture.
First off, three disturbing patterns really stood out to me in this Report:
1) There is the recurring assumption drawn upon throughout this Report that the population base in our area is clearly declining and will continue to decline. This is a central "fact" drawn upon to justify closing our school. What objective research on our particular area is this based upon? Are we again being mistakenly lumped together with rural areas where populations really are dropping? This central assumption needs to be justified and a number of facts directly challenge this conclusion. First, there is currently a significant movement of the rural population into our city and this can be expected to continue. Secondly, while there are many retired adults currently living in Parkdale- and this is one big reason our enrolment has temporarily declined, unlike in many other areas, younger families are now just starting to take over these houses when retired people move out so more children will soon be needing a school. Every area goes through cycles, we are just coming out of one phase of such a cycle. But we shouldn’t open and close schools based on this kind of fluctuation. This is exactly parallel to the situation at West Kent where a similar population renewal occurred bringing in new families, student numbers slowly increased and the school remains dynamic and open. Thirdly, with anticipated increased gas and energy costs, people are being drawn to live here rather than commute. Fourthly, there is also a new subdivision in Parkdale zoned for multi family housing, an application on file to re-zone a mobile home park in our area for multi family housing and new houses are currently being built on Kensington Road as we sit here.
Even with blatantly ignoring these additional noted trends, the Report still predicts our school’s population to at least remain relatively stable over the next number of years, unlike other schools considered for closing. Our dropping numbers appear to have bottomed out- unlike many rural areas, and if the trends just noted above have any base whatsoever, our numbers will now start to increase again. But this enrolment stability is not fully acknowledged and absolutely none of the community development trends just noted is acknowledged in this report. Even more disturbingly, any serious look at future trends is absent. This is a blatant error by omission, short sightedness and again, mis-represents our unique demographic situation and the case to keep the Parkdale School alive and growing.
2) Second disturbing pattern noted: Our school is consistently lumped together with other small schools being considered for closure. But each school is quite unique. For example, we are not a small rural school with a drastically shrinking population base, we do not have inadequate resources, our children are not suffering from isolation- our students are actually flourishing. We are in fact the only inner city elementary school with adequate green space and outdoor activity space for both current and possible future expansion scenarios. We are the only school that can expand in the future and still provide a safe place for buses to load and unload, still provide a more than adequate sports field and the only one with a new, more than adequate gym space - well over 1 million dollars of taxpayers money wisely spent there just 6 years ago. These issues are totally unaddressed in this report.
In our case, closing our school also means sending our children to a school with already acknowledged inadequate parking, inadequate green space and a drastically downgraded gym space that will mean that many of our current highly successful gym programs will be lost to our children. I just took my son to the provincial gymnastics championships because our gymnasium and teachers have consistently supported him in this, but if our school closes and he is forced to move, this program will be lost to him. My stepdaughter also made it to the provincial badminton finals and that will be impossible henceforth as the school gym they will be sent to has inadequate ceiling height and space for these and other sports that are now flourishing at Parkdale. This issue is totally unacknowledged and ignored but will have a very real negative effect on my children and many other children.
In addition, this planned mass herding of our children to Prince Street will also result in even more dramatic safety issues caused by more kids and more buses on already overcrowded, narrow downtown streets and the overcrowding of a facility that has, in contrast to Parkdale, absolutely no future expansion possibilities. Because of these factors, if forced to re-locate, our parents will then do everything in our power to send our kids elsewhere resulting in a further fragmentation of long term school friends and our community. The Report even acknowledges that if our school is closed children will probably be fragmented in several different directions. But the true significance and relevance of these unique elements of our situation are totally ignored in this report.
3) A third recurring pattern noted in this Report is the presentation of inaccurate and often misleading, "facts"and ignoring other equally true facts that would run counter to closing our school. A more glaring example of this occurs when it is stated that St. Jean’s has inadequate green space for outdoor activities and this was given as one "fact" supporting closing St. Jeans. Strangely enough, absolutely no acknowledgment is given to the equally true "fact" that the Prince street school where our children are to be sent is even more limited by the exact same constraints in green space and outdoor activity space. Furthermore, the report even says that the limited green space and outdoor activity space around Parkdale could be a problem if more students were to go there. The report also blatantly ignores the existence of our fully developed ballfield (did the author truly realize when he wrote this report that this huge green space actually belongs to the Parkdale School?), surrounding green space as well as adjacent government owned green space that could be available for future expansion. This is a full 3 acre site with a state of the art ball diamond that the school leases to the city and with a beautiful state of the art playground built by parents and community volunteers- all elements that are unique to our school and all facts that are mainly ignored. Incomplete and flawed information yields flawed decisions. These need to be addressed before you can make informed final decisions.
A final, but very central, contradiction to me just jumped out at me when reading this Report. The author appears at times in the report to at least begin to acknowledge the central value of this unique school space and his reluctance to lose it. In the summary section of the Colonel Grey Family of Schools section (pg 21) the author even goes so far as acknowledging that the Parkdale school site is one of six of, "the best elementary school sites in the City of Charlottetown". He notes, "these sites (which includes Parkdale School) have characteristics in common that are essential in terms of elementary schools. They are easily accessible in terms of location, they are safe in terms of traffic and dropping off/picking up students and they have lots of recreational areas and green space. Over the next decade these sites should be fully utilized."How can it be fully utilized if it is closed and our children removed from it? It should be noted that none of the other five schools assessed as being in this same highly valuable group as Parkdale (Spring Park, West Royalty, West Kent., L.M. Montgomery and Sherwood) are recommended to be closed. And yet this passing - but to me, absolutely central acknowledgment, is then totally forgotten and ignored throughout the rest of this Report. Remember, this is not just acknowledged as merely a nice or optional feature of our school, but as an "essential" characteristic of an elementary school. How can such a central factor then be totally ignored when a plan for closures is recommended? The author goes on to briefly acknowledge our new state of the art gymnasium (he does not mention the 1.3 million dollars invested) and then, in the very next sentence in the report, goes on to say- "in this report it is recommended that Parkdale be closed -".
We have to- and indeed we are, really asking ourselves just what is really driving these recommendations regarding Parkdale when what is acknowledged as "essential" can then be side-stepped, not factored into the equation and ignored when it comes time to recommend saving a few bucks? The well being of our children is obviously not the priority when what is so essential can be so simply cast aside. How do you go about fully utilizing this acknowledged highly valuable space- one of the best in our city, by forcing our children to move out of it? How does this play out when you are, in addition, herding our children into an overcrowded downtown space that- most interestingly, is not even included in this small list of highly valuable school spaces that have these "essential" characteristics of an elementary school? The author even goes on later in the report to suggest our space is not adequate enough to handle any increase in students and, again, totally ignores the severe space constraints and related safety issues involved in herding our students to Prince Street. This to me is absolutely spell binding, contradictory, misleading and just has to be addressed !
I will end off my submission by highlighting some points from my earlier written submission to the Board of Trustees:
- why not limit the disruption to closing just one school in the downtown core and then build on the many highlighted factors at Parkdale?
- Parkdale’s new, state of the art gym facility ensures proper indoor physical activity for our children- it would be a shame to stop using this facility. It is also a well used central community center and closing the school would be a yet another blow to our whole community. These closures should be about supporting community and improving facilities for children. What is really the priority here?
- the incredibly valuable, self-contained three acres of green, outdoor physical activity space is unique to Parkdale and it supports many sports program including a very active track and field program. Prince Street has significantly more serious limits due to being totally surrounded by streets and residential housing. Future development potential also needs to be given significantly more weight and this is not even identified in the Report- to me, a glaring omission
- increased bus activity on narrow city streets associated with moving to Prince St. is a huge concern. The danger level to our children will increase with more buses clogging narrow streets, cars trying to pass to get to work and an increased number of children trying to get to school. In contrast to this, Parkdale has a huge bus parking lot where buses can come off the streets and drop the children safely into the playground. And again, future development potential is better here due to space availability. Again, this safety issue is totally ignored in this Report
- the space at Prince Street School is already well utilized - taking on another 100 students will require expansion- or result in very over crowded classrooms. It makes far more sense to add classroom space onto the Parkdale School and use it’s brand new gym, better outdoor space, safer bus drop off space, and most importantly, more space options for future community development.(all acknowledged as "essential" to any good elementary school)
- students from Hillsborough Development drive right by Parkdale School on the way to St.Jeans. It would be more efficient to send them to Parkdale. Besides, how can you close schools and disrupt children without first fully considering re-zoning options that could easily send more kids to Parkdale?
- the Report ignores that many classrooms at Prince St. are unavailable as they are currently used for the breakfast program, music, special needs students etc
- the Report clearly states that at the Prince Street School, "there is no room for needed further expansion as there is inadequate parking for staff at present"- even more staff equals even more cars. Again, this problem is totally ignored in the Report
- the Report states that students at Prince Street School would have access to John Street Park. This would create another unacknowledged safety issue as it is too far to travel for lunch and recess not to mention safety issues in putting even more kids on those narrow streets
- the Report says all eleven schools recommended for closure, "can no longer meet the programming, student support, and teaching needs of our students". Parkdale students have a full compliment of programming and student services and this statement is blatantly inaccurate and without reference.
- it is stated in the Report that Parkdale School meets all the Department of Education’s required physical education, music and core french requirements and it also has endless drama, music, team sports and performance opportunities. Being part of this small school has in no way been "limiting" as stated in the report.
- the Report states there is, "less specialist time" - This is inaccurate as our students receive all that is required and perhaps unlike other small schools, all specialist areas are properly staffed - e.g. fully qualified gym, music and french teachers.
- Parkdale students will not be exposed to broader programming. They will in fact lose gym programs, intramural opportunities, plus music and art exposure due to the higher number of classes
- the report says; "All teaching staff at Parkdale work to provide quality education to all students despite the limitations of a small school". What exactly are these limitations? They were never clearly identified in the report.
- another central assumption in this Report is that same grade level teacher collaboration is essential for good results and we’re too small for that. However, research indicates that there are many essential factors , including level of parental involvement, teacher expectations and socioeconomic level. Teacher collaboration, though helpful, is not seen as central and besides, new technologies open many alternative ways to collaborate. Further to this, the only objective research I found completed here on PEI was the recent Primary Literacy Assessment done on our elementary schools in 2007/2008. Results clearly show that our Parkdale students, who apparently were deprived of teacher collaboration, actually scored as well as, and often better than, comparable students in the larger elementary schools (obviously lots of collaboration). This factor is not at all essential and again, it’s a core assumption repeatedly drawn upon to justify closing our school.
It would be a very serious mistake indeed to close the Parkdale School. In fact, it is a prime school to be expanded upon now and/or in the future, not eliminated. The report even reluctantly acknowledges that it is, “one of the best of the four elementary school sites in the city”. It further acknowledges that our school is totally in league with all other great city schools to be well utilized over the next decade, and none of which are slated for closure as they all, like Parkdale, have the “essential” characteristics of a great school ! It is in fact the only downtown elementary school with adequate outdoor space, future development potential and a safe environment for our children. We will never again find another green school space like this in the downtown area so let’s really capitalize on this- not lose it, for the well being of our current and future children.
The three recurring issues identified earlier remain problematic; 1) mis-representing the future population base for our school by not acknowledging relevant community development and demographic tendencies that support our position; 2) lumping our school’s unique situation in with other schools and thus obscuring unique factors in our situation that clearly support maintaining our school; 3) incomplete information and consistently overlooking internal contradictions and important facts that support keeping our school open.
All of these points really need to be more carefully considered. Many facts in the Report have been questioned by many people, including myself. These issues and questions need to be adequately considered and resolved before any decisive action is taken. Let us resist the temptation to simply eliminate the smallest school and end up losing the most valuable resource of all- the one and only adequate city green space we now have in our hands upon which we can develop an even better future school for our children! What do you want for your children?
Sincerely,
Lawrence McKnight- a very concerned Parkdale parent
And in trust for Joshua James Samuel McKnight, my Parkdale son
and his many friends who are now flourishing in the Parkdale School
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