Editor,
This is an open letter to Education Minister Rob Fleming.
For 15 years, we have been waiting.
For 15 years, we have listened as our board of education has told us Quesnel Secondary School was falling apart.
For several of those years, we heard rumours that if the furnace was to break, our children would be left in the cold, as the parts were too old and obsolete to replace.
For 15 years, we have trusted that our elected provincial members would protect our children and ensure their safety by replacing the school.
We were wrong.
We, as concerned parents have now been informed, the school has run out of its life expectancy and needs to be closed.
Most school districts have to face the horrific decision to replace schools over the summer; we know this, as we lost one only two short years ago and saved two others only through the perseverance of parents.
In our case, this is not to be.
Quesnel Junior School is so unsafe that we are moving our children over spring break in March 2018.
We were given only four months’ notice.
My heart breaks for our board of education and senior administrative staff, who have had to inform students, parents and community stakeholders that we are moving to a different school with such little notice.
Please note, it’s not a new school. It’s a different school that has been closed to students for several years.
Will this school be the permanent home of Quesnel Junior?
No!
Because once again, the school that our children are being moved to is also old and has a limited life expectancy.
We are grateful to the Ministry of Education for recognizing that we needed a safe place for our children.
We appreciate the funding to improve the quality of the school that they are moving into. However, after 15 years of waiting, we are done.
We need for our community to have a concrete plan to replace Quesnel Junior, and after all this time, we deserve a new school.
The statistics are showing the positive growth that our young adolescents have had with this education model, and while we understand declining enrollment, we also understand that we will also see a turn of growth as well, and we know that our children are worth investing in.
This is a situation that must be rectified within your ministry.
We have waited15 years, and we are done with waiting.
Our children and the staff who support them deserve better. They deserve a permanent school that they can be all be safe and grow in.
Please advise us as to the action plan that you have set in place for the replacement of Quesnel Junior Secondary.
Selena Weiers, president
Maria Dawson, past president
Quesnel District Parent Advisory Council president
