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Future of ECS advances to next phase of discussion

The question as to what to do with the 50-year-old Estevan Comprehensive School has made it to the committee and community levels with no firm plan in place yet.

The question as to what to do with the 50-year-old Estevan Comprehensive School has made it to the committee and community levels with no firm plan in place yet.

A three-person ad-hoc committee established within the South East Cornerstone Public School Division’s governance body has made their first two forays into discussions, including one public information gathering session on May 28 at the school.

It appears as if all options are still open with the opportunity to meet with Estevan city council and administrators as well as the Estevan Chamber of Commerce pending.

Initial contacts have been made with those bodies said Cornerstone’s committee members Jim Vermeersch, Shari Sutter and Kevin Keating who were joined by their director of education Lynn Little, Cornerstone’s manager of facilities and transportation Andy Dobson and deputy director Keith Keating for a June 19 meeting that was aimed at advancing the file by doing a review of more than 100 suggestions that were forwarded to them following the May 28 meeting.

Vermeersch said the one-hour working session mainly focused on gathering information from Dobson as to what maintenance issues were ahead for ECS and a breakdown of similar reports on the four elementary schools in the city.

“We heard clearly the public does not want the Comp. to drop courses; they will want them to offer all the programs they currently provide,” said Vermeersch. “If that’s the case, then we look at alternatives, because enrolment is dropping.

“So, we then look at including Grades 7 and 8 and that suggestion, I would say, got mixed reviews from the people who were at the public meeting.”

Vermeersch and Kevin Keating, who were contacted after the second “working” session, agreed, “some believed it may be a necessity.”

Keating added that he has seen kindergarten to Grade 12 schools operate very successfully in Oxbow and Carnduff with a strong comfort level for all ages and that a recent move to include Grades 7 and 8 at the Weyburn Comprehensive School “appears to be working out well too. So I’m not afraid to advocate for any combination of grades, but that is my personal feeling. I’m just saying I’ve seen how it works in other locations and they could probably make it work in Estevan too.”

Of course that decision would lead to other implications, such as what would happen with the city’s four current elementary schools with the loss of enrolment numbers.

Keating also noted that students, staff and administration within the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division would be affected and might be challenged with making decisions regarding Grades 7 and 8 as well, since under current agreements, Holy Family students graduating from Grade 8 are generally enrolled at ECS, including those who are engaged in French immersion programming.

Sutter, who was asked about her thoughts on the topic prior to the June 19 meeting, said she was also interested in discussing the inclusion of other community organizations or agencies if their mandate allowed.

“Something like the (Estevan) Family (Resource) Centre for instance, might be one option. A public service agency that could provide opportunity for the school and ECS students as well as the partner organization, might prove to be successful for everyone,” she said.

“I do know, something has to be done,” said Vermeersch, “and if that means other capital partners to use the unused space at the Comp., well, that talk with the City and others might be very useful. We need to explore the potential.”

Keating said he believed the City of Estevan administration had requested a sit-down session with the Cornerstone team, in an attempt to find a solution for ECS that is currently utilizing less than 50 per cent of the total space under its roof and that is space that will not be funded through provincial education grant formulas. A lot of the additional space was created when the Southeast College moved out to establish their own Estevan campus nearby.

The three trustees said they felt that a working session with city administration and chamber could unveil even more options and suggestions and then they would reconvene again in a month or two. They felt they were still quite some distance from providing any solid recommendations for the full Cornerstone board to consider since they were fact finding and building on the information they have already as well as being interested in gathering more from the general public.

“We’re fielding all kinds of ideas from dance, gym and community arts partners and programs and several other concepts. We wanted to get an idea of what the people were thinking at those table discussions we had at the public meeting. We’re working through them now. We would like to meet with others and we need a partner at ECS,” said Keating.

He said they had not reached a stage yet where they might be interested in engaging the services of a person or team that has professional experience in “repurposing” facilities either public or private, that might benefit the entire community since it was too early in the process to contemplate that option.