East Central Alberta Catholic Separate School Board voted unanimously to close the Mother Theresa School in Halkirk Mon. March 21 at their regular board meeting in Stettler.
According to parent, JD Johnson, “the parents were disappointed and do not believe that they [East Central Alberta Catholic Separate School Board] exercised every option to keep the school open.”
“There was no discussion at the meeting and it was an unanimous vote. It appeared to be staged,” he said.
He added they never consulted with the parents on any options other than closing the school.
“I believe they took the easy way out,” concluded JD.
According to Superintendent Charlie McCormick, the closure had been under discussion since August when it became apparent that student numbers had dropped from 38 to 30.
“We looked at a number of options as we went through this whole process,” stated McCormick, including obtaining an engineer’s detailed report on the structure of the school and sent registered letters to the parents, county and village as well as the public meeting.
The last day for the school to remain open will be at the end of June, 2016.
