Respectfully Standing Up

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Last updated at 9:26 AM on 06/03/09   Stop the disrespect but don't stop fighting for our school  Guest Opinion COMMENTARY LAWRENCE MCKNIGHT  As a Parkdale School parent, I first off want to acknowledge recent media coverage of comments made by some parents trying to save our Parkdale School, reactionary comments made by some at Prince Street School, then more derogatory comments by parents on public websites and elsewhere. Reports from some other presentations made outside the Charlottetown area even speak of name-calling and periodic verbal attacks. I think we all need to take a deep breath, slow down and be really careful of letting disrespect take over while losing sight of the flawed and inherently divisive process driving this whole debate. When parents get thrown into the middle of a process that is already well underway and its pre-made conclusions directly threaten their children's well-being, defensive and reactionary positioning can easily take over. Furthermore, when the report that set this whole uproar into action in the first place is now widely acknowledged as having numerous limitations, internal contradictions, inaccuracies, legal questions and that it makes some unfounded conclusions, emotions run high. Nevertheless, I fully believe that parents on all sides of this debate, who are understandably emotionally charged in defending the well-being of their children, sometimes need to be more cautious and respectful when directing outwardly their sense of powerlessness and anger. It's easy for parents to get sidetracked when feeling disempowered and threatened and even slip into disrespectful attacks. We don't need this. Our children don't need this. And yet, at least in our case, the core issues originally identified by parents at Parkdale School remain. The predicted population decline figures for our area are highly questionable and evidence that our area's population may well increase has been cited. Eastern School District superintendent Sandy MacDonald admitted at the last public presentations in Charlottetown that he had made a mistake in the report in concluding that the Parkdale site would have a problem handling more students and a potential expansion. But this central "fact" was one key reason cited to close our school. He later commented that building onto the Parkdale School, "would certainly turn Parkdale into a very, very valuable site, even more so as compared to Prince Street." Then he concludes that we should close down our Parkdale School and send all our children to Prince Street School. Digesting contradictions like this one does push our parents into a real pressure cooker. But in the end, if we parents simply allow this flawed and divisive process to shut down the Parkdale School, all children in Charlottetown and surrounding area will lose. Charlottetown children will lose forever the use of four full acres of incredibly valuable inner city green space, an incredible, new, million-dollar gymnasium, various gym programs that require this space to continue, a full onsite ball field, a unique safe area for boarding buses and the only inner city school site that can safely handle significant future expansions and developments. Let's really think ahead this time when we make these next big adjustments. MacDonald called the Parkdale site, "one of the best elementary school sites in the city of Charlottetown - these sites have characteristics in common that are essential in terms of elementary schools (the same characteristics we cited). Over the next decade these sites should be fully utilized." We agree. The property services manager for our school district, and MacDonald, actually noted that Parkdale School has an ideal location on which to extend more classroom space as needed, while still preserving all the valuable outdoor space for children's activities and making even better use of our new, million-dollar gymnasium. Home and school volunteers with construction backgrounds are currently drawing up demonstration building plans to show just how various stages of expansion to our facility could be built within a very reasonable budget. Our trustees really need, and deserve to be given, adequate time and opportunity to more fully consider these new options being presented by our group to save the Parkdale School. This Parkdale School site really is an essential resource for Charlottetown's children. For this reason, perhaps you might begin to understand our shocked, angry and emotionally charged reactions to the current threat to close down this incredible resource for all city children. But let's go easier on each other and re-focus on logical thinking and above all, saving and building upon, this key resource that is clearly very valuable for all our city children. Lawrence McKnight is a social worker, active member of the Parkdale Home and School Association and his child currently attends Parkdale School.