Tanya Lucente of the Bridge Lake Community Centre Association isn’t resting her fight against reduced teaching time and classrooms at Bridge Lake Elementary school this summer.

In criticizing

Diane Wright, district superintendent, Lucente asks “Is Wright wrong? And does multi-grade make the grade?”

She was quoting from a Free Press interview with Wright who said, “Four grades in a class is a different education, not better and not worse.”

Lucente has been researching the topic and found this quote on the BC Teacher’s Federation website: “multi-grade teaching environments demand more from the teachers in the way of preparation which increases their stress levels and reduces individual attention to students which compromises their educational experience.”

Lucente has a letter of support from Brian Fichter, retired school administrator and district superintendent/CEO, urging the group to continue their fight in support of the education of BC children.

He wrote that School District 13, Kettle Valley, had a kindergarten to grade three class in 1993 but the job was too much for one teacher to do day in and day out.

Fichter wrote they also experienced high parent discontent as students were put in an educationally high-risk situation.

“Certainly the K-3 split was an economically satisfying situation but the education of the children and the mental stability of the teachers were at risk and we could not allow that to happen,” he wrote.

Lucente and other parents are outraged that the school district is cutting back on teaching staff and having two classrooms at their school with four grades in each class.