Wednesday 18 April 2007

David and Goliath Principle At Work Perhaps??


I'm so excited. It's too bad It's 11:30 pm! It's difficult to call
people this late at night. ;0)

I went to the school board meeting where they debated whether or not
to close our school. I was rather resigned to our fate and figured I
might as well see the postives in going to the new school.

Well, to my surprise, they didn't close our school!!

There were two schools on the chopping block. It was interesting
because they voted unanimously in favor of closing the other school.
When it came to debating closure of our school it quickly became
evident that they weren't so sure about closing it. I was sitting by
our principal and I kept poking him and saying, "I can't believe
this?! I am starting to feel like there's hope!" and he'd say, "I
told you!"

And then in the end there was on Trustee that voted in favor of
closure, and six voted against.

After the meeting I was approached by a reporter from the Calgary
Herald. She had talked to me before the meeting too. She asked me
what I thought of the outcome - and I just cried. She kind of looked
at me with a blank look - and then walked away. (LOL I'm a lousy
interview!!) After that the CTV reporter asked if she could interview
me. Luckily she had to interview the chair of the trustees first - so
I had a minute to get it together....and did a bit of a better job on
that one. LOL (My one thought I kept having was - I'm sure glad I
colored my hair last Friday so I don't look so grey)

So, that's my story. I have a renewed faith in the system. We had
totally stacked the committee that put forward the scenarios for
consideration. I think they really did listen! I also heard a lot of comments that lead me to believe that they really were listening at the public meeting last month and that the things parents said there did make a difference.

Funny. I was probably the most cynical parent when it came to CBE
when Jill started scool. I think they're almost winning me over!

One of the things they mentioned tonight is that they really like the arts programming going on at the school and mused about making it a French Immersion Learning Through the Arts school. That would be my dream!! In the beginning I debated over whether to send Jill to a learning through the arts school or French Immersion. If we get both happening that would be TERRIFIC!!


I thought maybe I'd be using this shot of the trustees as a dart board today - but not so!!

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