This week Central Spryfield’s SAC submitted a report to the school board to say why they feel the school should not be closed. Central Spryfield is one of five schools up for review for possible closure. This report is part of a process that allows the school board to decide what should be done with the school. If Central Spryfield was closed, its students would go to Elizabeth Sutherland school.
You can see the school board’s reasons for putting the school up for review here.
You can see the school’s response to that, here. Attached to that document are letters of support from people in the community.
The highlights of the school committee’s response are:
-This is a poor area and the committee believes closing the school would make life harder for families in “childcare, transportation to and from school, as well as providing nutritional diets for their children.” The report points out 46 per cent of families at Central Spryfield are run by single parents.
-The committee believes a smaller school will allow staff to concentrate more on individual students, particularly at-risk students.
-The report states the community uses the school gym for about 139 days from September to June, and those groups would have to move elsewhere if the school closed.
-The committee says it believes the area around Central Spryfield will be developed into residential neighbourhoods soon, which would bring more children into the area.
Sari Primeau is the chair of the committee that put this report together. She tells me the school board will be coming to Central Spryfield on February 23 at 6pm in the school gym. That meeting is open to the community. The snow date is March 6.