Foothills School Division trustees will decide whether to revive Grade 9 at Millarville Community School for the fall of 2020.
Trustees approved a motion on Jan. 16 to decide at its first meeting in November whether to have Grade 9 added to the Kindergarten to Grade 8 school in the hamlet of Millarville.
“The decision was to do it [the vote] for the first meeting in November to give us enough time for September 2020,” said division vice-chair Theresa Letendre, who represents the Millarville, Priddis, Red Deer Lake area.
The public, not trustees, drove the proposal.
“Parents submitted a letter to the board in May asking us to consider to adding Grade 9 to the school,” Letendre said. “It [Grade 9] was there 30 years ago and they would like to get it back.”
She said the Millarville School Council did a survey, which was submitted to the school board and 102 families of 120 who participated were in favour of Grade 9 returning.
At present, students in the Millarville boundary attend Oilfields High School in Black Diamond for Grades 9-12.
“The biggest issue was the parents wanted easier transition,” Letendre said. “Having that full-experience from Kindergarten
to Grade 9.”
However, there are some preliminary concerns.
“There are a lot of mitigating factors but it is time to act on this so we can make changes,” said trustee Bill Young, adding trustees are only slightly more than two years from another election.
“It is time for us to either fish or cut bait.”
He added he does have concerns about the impact on the Grade 7-Grade 12 Oilfields High School.
The division will be holding public consultation with all stakeholders, including Oilfields, before voting in November.
Because there is only one grade involved with the configuration, the school division can make the change on its own
without having to go through Alberta Education.
It is not the first time this decade an attempt was made to bring back the Grade 9s to Millarville.
In September 2011, trustees voted against it, as there were not enough students to form a class for stand-on-its-own Grade 9 class.
A press release from the Millarville School Council said it was pleased with the announcement the division will revisit the issue in 2019.
“The Millarville Community School Council is delighted that the Foothills School Division is open to considering the possibility of having a Grade 9 class at the Millarville Community School, and that the board of trustees has agreed to explore the idea further,” the release stated. “As a school council, we look forward to learning more about next steps, including the community consultations that will guide any future decisions.”
At present, Millarville is the lone traditional school with junior high school aged students north of Aldersyde not going to Grade 9. The other schools that are K to Grade 8 are Blackie and Cayley schools.
