In a move they acknowledged would not be universally popular, the Rocky View Schools (RVS) Board of Trustees voted on April 27 for Cochrane Christian Academy (CCA) students to attend the vacant school on Powell Street starting in September.
The 6-1 vote came after approximately an hour of deliberation, during which the trustees said they recognized not all impacted Cochranites would agree with the decision, but that it came after months of consultation and consideration, and was deemed the scenario with the most pros compared to cons.
"I want to personally acknowledge and recognize the impact these changes are going to have on students, families, staff, and community, and I just want to assure everyone that no one at this table takes this decision lightly," said Ward 1 (Cochrane) Trustee Fiona Gilbert, prior to the vote last Thursday. "This is a heavy, heavy decision for us."
The CCA students, whose classes include kindergarten to Grade 8, currently study out of Mitford School's campus.
As a result of the board's decision this week, the school on Powell Street will henceforth be known as Cochrane Christian Academy. It will continue to offer K-8 programming throughout the 2023-24 school year and beyond.
In addition, RVS will establish a French Immersion middle-school program at Mitford School, starting with Grade 5 for the 2023-24 school year. That program will then grow by an additional grade each year up until it includes grades 5 through 8. In order to do this, RVS will adjust the French Immersion boundary in Cochrane so that French-learning students living in Heartland and all communities south of the train tracks are designated to attend Mitford School.
The topic of how RVS would integrate the vacant school on Powell Street to address an ongoing space crunch among Cochrane's public schools has been a hot-button issue ever since the public school division re-acquired the facility from the Calgary Catholic School Division (CCSD) in September 2022. The facility previously housed Holy Spirit School, which has relocated to a new building in Fireside in September 2022.
Throughout the current school year, RVS has spent $2.8 million renovating the Powell Street site, including upgrades to the roof, re-sanding the floors in the gymnasium, replacing the lighting, painting, and installing a new PA and phone system, among other things. According to Greg Luterbach, RVS superintendent, those renovations are currently on time and on budget, and expected to wrap up in the summer.
Amid these renovations, the issue of who will study at the school next September has been a topic repeatedly discussed among RVS trustees and staff, who conducted consultation with families throughout the current school year.
That consultation ultimately rendered five potential scenarios, two of which were selected by staff as the most ideal and discussed at the April 27 meeting. One of the options (referenced as Scenario 5 during the RVS board meeting on March 23) was to relocate CCA to Powell Street.
The other option was for K-5 students living in Heartland and East End to attend the Powell Street facility, and then tweak the grade configurations at Elizabeth Barrett Elementary, Glenbow Elementary, Mitford, and Manachaban schools.
Ultimately, RVS staff recommended the former option, and Gilbert moved to approve it.
"I will be the first to admit this accommodation plan is not perfect...None of these scenarios are, and nor is the reality we face with the current utilization of our school facilities in Cochrane, at over 96 per cent," the area trustee said during the meeting. "I really wish I had a magic wand that I could wave it and miraculously create new learning spaces in our schools so the changes to boundaries and programs did not need to be made.
"Regrettably, I do not have this magic wand. I have looked, and I do not have it. We are left to contemplate how best to accommodate students in Cochrane given our current realities and the information and feedback we have at this time."
Trustees' reasoning for selecting the CCA relocation option was that it would keep students together and avoid the possibility of splitting up the grade configurations at other schools, thus separating friends and siblings.
"While neither perfect nor ideal, the Scenario 5 accommodation plan currently in front of us for consideration is, in my opinion, the best option for Cochrane students at this time," Gilbert said. "It keeps families and communities together, it maximizes the utilization of Cochrane schools as best as we can, and it provides opportunity for programs to grow."
Most trustees seemed to agree, apart from Ward 3 (Airdrie) trustee Melyssa Bowen. While she said she wasn't "strongly" opposed to the recommended option, Bowen said her decision to vote against Gilbert's motion was simply based on the immediate utilization rates the option would present.
“I appreciate the process overall…I hope we don’t have to do this again sooner or later, because it is a difficult position to be in,” she said.
CCA parent reacts
Watching last week's decision unfold at RVS' board meeting was Jason Kersey, a parent of three children who attend CCA. Kersey had also spoken at the March 23 board meeting as a representative of an informal group of CCA parents.
Speaking to The Cochrane Eagle after the April 27 meeting, Kersey said the decision is disappointing for CCA families. While keeping siblings together is undeniably positive, he argued the Powell Street building is designed for younger grades, and it will present challenges and limitations for CCA students in grades 5 to 8.
"They've said on multiple separate occasions – including in the RVS letter they sent out – that Powell Street is not set up for middle-school kids," he said.
"From my perspective, it's pretty disappointing and fairly disheartening that they want to cram our middle-school kids in there with no [option programming capabilities or sport programming], when they've said multiple times that the school is not set up for middle school."
Kersey said he would have preferred to see a previously discussed option implemented that would have relocated kids in Fireside School to Powell Street, or the option of having East End or Heartland elementary-grade students feed into the Powell Street building.
"That would have accommodated the age-appropriateness of the school," he said. "If you actually look at the numbers, that would alleviate more room for the schools in years to come, which would give them more time...to find a long-term solution."
In an RVS press release issued after the meeting, RVS Board Chair Norma Lang acknowledged the trustees' decision will generate mixed reviews. However, she added the addition of the school on Powell Street will provide much-needed additional student spaces in Cochrane, as enrolment in the town's schools continues to rise by about 300 new students annually.
“The reality is enrolment in Cochrane is going to continue to increase and without approval for new schools, RVS will continue to experience student space issues for the foreseeable future,” she said.
