Faced with declining enrollment at Juno Beach Academy, the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) has given parents two options: either close the school or move the program to Queen Elizabeth High School.
Neither option went over well with parents and students at an open house Monday night.
Parents are hoping the CBE will give them a year to boost enrollment numbers.
“I would like to see the Calgary Board of Education maybe support us a little more, give us another year,” said Kathy Cross, the chair of the school’s parent advisory council.
Juno Beach Academy is a school steeped in military history and tradition.
For the past 12 years, the school has offered students courses in military history along with a code of conduct and an annual field trip to Juno Beach for Grade 12 students.
But there has been a steep decline in enrollment. In 2008 there were 195 students; this year there are 114.
The program has already moved three times and many are opposed to yet another move, this time to Queen Elizabeth.
Amy Prescott, a Grade 11 student, is concerned moving to a much bigger school will hurt her education ‘because with a bigger school there is a bigger population and with more students there is less one-on-one’.
But the CBE told parents that keeping the school open at its current location in the city’s southeast is not an option.
“The other option is to close the program,” said CBE director Sydney Smith.
The board will make a decision on the school’s future on December 8.
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