Editor, The Record:Re: Deroche stays open; Durieu to close, Feb. 24 edition.It was very sad, and sadly inevitable, to learn of the school board’s decision to close Durieu school. When we were looking for a traditional school to send our two children to several years ago, we toured Durieu. We were extremely impressed! The school was then, and from all I hear is now, a top-notch school academically and socially and is a vital part of the farming community and Mission in general. For reasons which I am not even sure of six years later, we opted to send our kids to Auguston Traditional instead. They hated it there!The school board should be ashamed of its shortsightedness not just in closing Durieu, but in the closure of many other schools in Mission in recent years as well. They have enough money in their budget to give themselves hefty raises and attend expensive conferences in the United States, but cannot keep schools open.Unfortunately for all of us, the Mission school board is merely following direction from the Ministry of Education who in turn follows Campbell’s directive that schools (and hospitals) must turn a profit. This is the root of the problem which filters down to the children and parents of Mission. The very idea that public education and health care are to be profitable is an absurd one to begin with.I hope Christy Clark can turn this bone-headed and dangerous thinking around, but I am not optimistic. Our two children are now in Grade 10 so we do not have many more years to complain about the incompetent administration of the Mission school board, but my heart aches for those people with small children who have to contend with 12 years of it.Karen GardnerMission
