Support sought for Calgary all-boys school

A boys-only school is back on the radar of the Calgary Board of Education, which will hold public meetings to gauge support for the idea.

The board put the idea on the back burner in May after a study it commissioned found little benefit to a boys-only program.

But it has since reconsidered, and will hold two public meetings to gauge interest after a group of parents submitted a proposal for a school for boys.

"Community members have put forward a proposal and we are working with them," said CBE spokesman Ted Flitton.

The first step in the process is to hold public meetings where parents can fill out forms expressing interest in a boys-only program.

The first meeting is being held Monday at Crescent Heights High School and the second will run Wednesday at Henry Wise Wood. Both will go from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

The board did not pursue an all-boys program in May after a staff review of 40 school boards across Canada found only eight offered single-gender programming. The report stated that "research into single-gender education does not substantiate claims that single-gender education is better than coeducational learning for male students."

The CBE currently operates Alice Jamieson Girls’ Academy, an all-girls school for grades 4 to 9.

When the board didn’t take any steps toward an all-boys program, two principals with the Foundations For the Future Charter Academy decided to to pursue a boys-only charter school in Calgary.

Their proposal has been submitted to Alberta Education for an all-boys Grade 1 to 9 program.

"It’s a huge surprise to us that the CBE is pursuing this," said Judy Gray, a co-principal at the southeast campus of the Foundations for the Future Charter Academy. "They decided not to proceed, that’s why we decided to move forward with this."

Flitton said in May there was never any talk of pursuing a new singlegender program, just a report. Now the board is responding to interest from parents.

Gray, and her co-principal Karen Wesley, are proposing to establish an entire school dedicated to educating boys only. Gray also co-founded the Calgary Girls Charter School.

"When parents would come to bring their daughters to the girls school, they would say, ‘Where’s the school for our son?’ So the interest has been there for eight years," said Gray, who has started a website and a Facebook page for the Calgary Boys School.

She said the research on singlegender schools shows better results for girls than boys, but she wants to change that.

"Most of the schools that are set up for boys are set up around the image for the military academy and it’s the wrong image," said Gray. "We want to challenge that research to say if you set up a school in a way that attends to the way boys learn, attends to helping them become good people in the world and helps them read and write from an early age, that’s all going to change."

The Calgary Calgary Catholic School District divided Sacred Heart School into boys and girls only classes in the fall and saw overall enrolment increase from 105 in 2009 to 120 this year at the kindergarten to Grade 6 school.

The Edmonton Catholic School District is planning to start two boys-only programs this fall after a survey of parents showed 190 were interested in the program. These all-boys classes would be in schools with mixed populations and only be offered in grades 4 and 5 to start.

"We think that it takes those three years (grades 1-3) for parents to understand how their children learn, what the educational needs of their children are," said Boris Radyo, assistant superintendent of Edmonton Catholic.

He said the program isn’t for everyone. Radyo said the type of boys who would benefit from the program are those with at least average academic achievement who are active learners, but tend to underperform in reading and writing.

The CBE will only move forward with an all-boys program if the board receives sufficient interest at its two meetings.

Sean Myers

Calgary Herald