Private facilitator Dr. Cal Hauserman gives a presentation to parents and guardians during a public consultation meeting on the purposed closure of Webster Niblock School. The public meeting was held at Medicine Hat High School Thursday night.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
More than 70 parents and guardians of students who attend Webster Niblock School heard Thursday from Medicine Hat Public School Division staff, as two local elementaries are scheduled for closure.
The meeting was the second in as many nights and is part of the division’s engagement process with parents as it looks to close Southview Community and Webster Niblock, both with a student enrolment fewer than 200, and transfer students to larger nearby elementary schools.
Reactions were mixed from parents who attended the town hall-style forum, which included group discussions with written feedback.
Natalie, a parent of a student at Webster Niblock, told the News the division provided more clarity into the decision-making process, but she still has concerns on how students will handle the transfer.
Should board trustees vote to close both schools, parents were presented with possible scenarios for students transitions that would occur at the beginning of the next school year.
Students from Southview could be reassigned to Crestwood STEM School or Ross Glen School, and students from Webster Niblock could be reassigned to Vincent Massey or Dr. Ken Sauer Fine Arts School.
“A smaller school, there’s more of a sense of community,” she said. “So if a school is going to have a really big size all of a sudden, it’s taking half another school, do you lose that sense of community?” So there’s a lot of concerns in that way,” said Natalie.
Matt Kennedy told reporters he feels the division fairly presented information on costs and student enrolment numbers, but feels trustees need to consider that each number represents a student and their family.
“In the case of schools and divisions each number is a kid and each of these kids have parents and so we want the best for our kids. We just feel like our kids will thrive better in a smaller school setting,” said Kennedy.
However, other parents say they are more open to the idea of sending their children to a larger school which can offer more programming and learning opportunities.
“It would be kind of an upgrade,” said Bridget Schock. “Because there are more resources there.”
“It makes sense to me, more kids at a school, you get more funding, I get it,” added Rob Schock on understanding the funding model presented to parents.
Following a background presentation, parents were split into groups and asked to write several items and concerns down on large poster paper addressing issues which may arise from the closures.
All data collected from both public meetings will be processed by private consultants who will compile the data and perform a thematic analysis to identify recurring issues expressed by parents.
This finding will be presented to trustees before any decisions are made.
“I think the key thing is, you hear all the voices, everybody that has an idea gets to share it,” explained Dr. Cal Hauserman, president at Hachi Consulting, on the process of collecting a large amount of feedback on poster paper and its effectiveness.
“Whenever I’ve gone through the data, there’s some things that pop up and I think, wow, I never thought of that, so there’s really unique things that come up from the data that I think are helpful to school boards.”
The division says it is facing budget challenges operating all schools at optimum levels, and trustees began looking into possibilities for cost-saving measures with consultants from Alberta Education at the beginning of 2025.
By closing the two schools the division would see $500,000 in cost savings and a deferred maintenance budget on the buildings of more than $7.9 million.
Now that both public consultation meetings have concluded, trustees will analyze all data collected and are expected to make a decision on Jan. 6.
If the closures are approved, the division says it will provide parents and staff with a transition plan beginning Jan. 12.
If the closures are approved, students will finish their school year and will be transferred at the beginning of next fall.
