RR Schools’ future may include daycare

Ken Johnston

About 30 people attended a meeting at Rainy River High School to talk about ways to keep the local schools viable.
With declining enrollments the process was started last spring to develop a strategic plan for keeping the elementary and high schools open in Rainy River. Last Wednesday two separate ideas were discussed.
Top brass from the school board as well as local school principals were on hand to guide the public through a SWOT session (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on the proposal to put new services into the local school facilities.
RRHS Principal Bob McGreevy spoke about how the schools could form partnerships and how public feedback is needed to steer the board in the right direction.
A new provincial government initiative called Best Start, will see enhanced learning opportunities for children from newborns to grade ones. Jeanette Cawston, Best Start Coordinator for the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board, explained that the province is fast tracking this initiative, wanting plans from local levels by the end of the year.
One of the priorities of Best Start is to create new and better early childhood care spaces. “Twenty spaces have been identified for Rainy River,” said Cawston. At present there are no licensed day care spaces in the community.
With the philosophy that Best Start will help kids be better prepared for school, the province has said that, “Elementary schools are the first choice for expansion of child care space.” With that in mind, Jack McMaster, Director of Education for the Rainy River Dist. School Board, feels there is, “Available space here. The question is how do we utilize it?”
The province has said while it prefers the child care spaces be located in schools, it is up to the community to drive the shape of the Best Start program in their community. If the community feels the program should be located outside an existing school they can look at that. However, the RRDSAB only has $313,000 for capital projects right across the district. In Atikokan they have chosen to locate in a childcare centre already in existence. In Fort Frances McMaster said they will likely have to build an addition on an existing school.
Stratton citizen and contractor Telford Advent said, “You can’t hardly build anything for that.”
A proposal to include the new day care spaces in Riverview Elementary School would likely see the grade 7 and 8 students moved over to RRHS. Rainy River citizen Heather Anderson asked what the board would say to people who do not want to move their kids over to the high school.
“Any decision we make won’t please everyone,” said McMaster who also noted that he would rather see the school remain open than to seal off a wing and sit empty. “We sit down and try to make the decisions best for the kids.”
Cawston also noted that the Best Start program has been developed to create a central hub for all early childhood learning programs like the Ontario Early Years, Northwestern Health Unit’s Healthy Babies, and programs like the local playschool. One of the options would be to house them all under one roof, perhaps at the school, or have them deliver services at the hub.
RR Playschool President, Dianne McCormick, noted that they have been working on a proposal for RRDSAB to develop early childcare spaces already. “We are patiently waiting to see where we will deliver the program. We would be more than happy to deliver our services out of the schools if possible.” They already partner with the health unit, the public library and the schools in several areas.
Rainy River citizen and public librarian, Penny Shumaker, raised concerns about moving all the services from Main Street.
Rainy River citizen and town councillor Deb Ewald noted that the community would not be losing services, they would just be moving.
Rainy River citizen and school librarian Rebecca Tolen noted that, “Services downtown are too cramped and not very accommodating. It would be nice to have new and open space.”
McMaster said that with the general consensus seeming to be in favour of looking at locating Best Start in the local schools that the next step would be for the board of ed. to have its facilities expert, Raymond Roy, assess what renovations would be necessary and do some cost estimates for the changes.
Cawston said that money for the program is in place for the next few years and that the province has said the Best Start program will run at least 10 years. It is hoped that once it is in place it will be very difficult for a different government to change or eliminate it.
“Within our community we have space. This is a great opportunity to fill with beneficial services,” said principal McGreevy.
Another proposal for utilizing the available space in the local schools came from the Rainy River Public Library. Library Board Chair, Terri-Anne Lundgren, said the local library has outgrown its space on Main Street. “We need about 2,000 square feet. Currently we have 800.” She asked if the schools would be willing to rent them space.
Lundgren said the public library would like to remain a separate entity and not amalgamate with the RRHS library. “We would be willing to pay rent.”
McMaster said they would have to look at the space available and asked if the library would be willing to look at less than 2,000 sq. ft.; say 1,500 or 1,600. Lundgren said they would be, but 2,000 would be ideal.
Lundgren noted that they currently partner with agencies mentioned in the Best Start proposal and feel the library would be a good fit in the schools.
It was agreed that the library board and the school council would sit down and talk about needs and possibilities.
McMaster said he was very pleased by the turnout and hearing citizens say things like, “We have an opportunity here and need to seize it.”
The board will now review the comments and SWOT results and come up with a plan. McMaster said they would then come back and discuss it with the public in Rainy River.