The School District 27 board has reiterated its determination to keep rural schools open, at least for the time being.

The resolution made during their Oct. 22 meeting was in response to parents at Bridge Lake who wanted reassurance from the board that their school won’t be closing due to low enrollment.

Rather than state specifically that Bridge Lake school won’t be closed the trustees agreed to have the chair write a generic letter to the Bridge Lake parents reiterating that the board has no intention of closing any schools at this time.

In discussion, trustee Wayne Rodier said it is the board’s current position to keep schools open but given the economic times, they can’t predict what will happen six months from now.

In his letter to the Bridge Lake parents chair Pete Penner explains that there is some extra cost in serving small schools in remote communities, but the board is trying its best to keep the rural schools open with the available funding received from the Ministry of Education.

“The School District 27 Board of Education has clearly stated that it is our intention to do our best to keep small schools open,” Penner’s letter states.

He says several rural schools are now as small as 20 students or less, but the distance that students would have to travel to another school is too far to expect them to leave their community.

One of the ways the board is working to keep small rural schools open is by closing off unused space in schools, to save on heating and janitorial costs. In efforts to recoup some operational costs, unused space in some rural schools has also been rented out to community groups for other uses such as day care centres.

Penner says the Ministry of Education allows parents the freedom to send their children to the school of their choice. In these cases parents must provide the transportation for the child if the school is not on the regular school bus route.