Editor:
I am writing you today in regards to the proposed school closure of Glendale Elementary. My mind has been reeling since hearing the news, my son attends there and my daughters were supposed to, every Glendale parent I’ve spoken to has been affected by the news.
It saddens me that the children must go through this and angers me that schools with very few students will remain open, displacing so many others. What upsets me the most is that the Glendale PAC (these are my opinions) reached out to Wildwood, letting them know we would be happy to welcome them into our Glendale Community, to bring their First Nations programs with them and that maybe in this way we could save all of our programs and still keep at least one of the schools open, they chose to work alone.
What I find confusing is I am positive I heard Mr. Neufeld comment that keeping a school of Wildwood’s size open isn’t more cost effective than keeping any other elementary school open, so it baffles me to think that 140-plus students are being displaced, when it would have made much more sense to join Wildwood and Glendale, perhaps they would have had higher enrolment into the First Nations Studies programs they offer, as it would be closer for many First Nations students to attend.
We could have brought something great to Williams Lake, an Elementary School of Choices, English balanced calendar, French Immersion, as well as the First Nations Studies that are provided at Wildwood, together as one community, which is what Glendale is, a community. The teachers and parents I have dealt with at Glendale are like a second family and are all fantastic. Mr. Matt Cullum is a dream Principal. He knows all of the students’ names, and many of the parents. You can tell he really cares about his school. He’s even had Santa arrive by helicopter to visit the kids. A school like Glendale is special and rare; it’s too bad that the school board has not shown us that they really have the children’s best interests at heart.
Tara Sharp
Williams Lake