Trustees and senior administration from the Prince Rupert School District were at Charles Hays Secondary on November 23 for the first of two scheduled public consultations on the potential closure of Prince Rupert Secondary School and grade configuration in the district.

Noting that time was a factor because a grade configuration decision was needed before the district could submit its mandated five-year capital plan to the Ministry of Education, and because delay could result in the loss of $8 million committed to seismic upgrades at PRSS, superintendent Lynn Hauptman outlined four options that the district is facing and the pros and cons of each.

One option is to stay with the current 8-12 model and add on to Charles Hays as quickly as possible. However, that model would result in the school being below capacity in a few years and no improvements happening at any other schools in the district.

The second option would be two have two schools, with one having students in grades 7-9 and the other housing grades 10-12. In this scenario both secondary schools would be about 150 to 175 students below capacity and the elective program in grades nine and 10 would be split, as would the junior athletics program.

The third option would be to have either a grade 8-10 and 11/12 school or a grade 8-10 and 10-12 school, with the grade 10s split between the two. This would split the graduation program, result in students in grade 11 students unable to make up grade 10 courses, and capacity issues stemming from the senior school having under 400 students by 2012 and the junior school having 500 to 550 students, which is still below capacity.

The fourth option, and the one that was covered the most at the meeting, was to have students in grades 9-12 at Charles Hays and grades 6-8 at a middle school. The students would be able to fit into CHSS by 2011 while the other students would be at a repurposed PRSS middle school until a decision on a new school or seismic upgrades was made. Pros of the middle school included focusing on the adolescent learners separate from the younger learners, more teachers to ease the transition to the secondary school and the ability to offer science labs and exploratory course like home-ec, sewing, shop and technology to the younger group. It was pointed out by an audience member that potential cons of a middle school were not covered in the presentation.

According to secretary/treasurer Cam McIntyre, PRSS has $19.5 million in upgrades required while a new middle school is estimated to cost $22 million. However, he and Hauptman were clear that there was no commitment from government to build a new school should they proceed, or that the seismic money could go to such a school.

Many in the audience said a decision needed to be made one way or the other, and high school principals Sheila Wells and Sandy Jones outlined some of their concerns with the current system.

“Both high schools struggle with timetables and, as the student population declines, it gets harder and harder for the students to get their first choice of classes because the blocks conflict…When we had 200 to 250 students in a grade we had eight blocks of English 12 and several for Math, but now the blocks may conflict with each other,” said Wells.

“Mathematically more students means more choices for students…These are real life opportunities we are denying our students by having low student populations,” added Jones.

Student population in the district dropped from 3,500 to under 2,400 between 1998 and 2008 and is projected to drop by another 16 per cent in the next five years. But another driving force of these discussions is budgetary challenges facing the district that include the possible loss of funding protection and the annual facilities grant, the HST, a carbon-neutral commitment, MSP increases, salary increases, pension funding and upcoming contract negotiations with the IOUE. All told it is estimated that 86 per cent of the district’s budget goes to salary and benefits.

As for what a decision to proceed with any of the options presented could mean for elementary schools, Hauptman went through each school looking at the estimated upgrade costs, with Roosevelt and Conrad the highest at $5.8 and $5.4 million respectively, student count and other considerations like proximity to day care and cross boundary transfers. Only Lax Kxeen and Pineridge, the two newest schools, were not examined for possible closure.

Hauptman stressed that it is important to note that no decision has been made by the board and that trustees need to hear from the public before they make a decision at a board meeting early next year.

“They need to make a decision based on what is best for the students of Prince Rupert, not just the current students but future students as well,” she said.

“The trustees want to hear from people, they want to know what you think.”

The district will host another public consultation, presented in more of a focus group manner, on Wednesday, December 2 at seven p.m.