This September, M.V. Beattie Elementary School in Enderby will see a larger growth in enrolment than it did last school year.
Just three months ago, Ashton Creek Elementary School shuttered its doors, closing after 101 years. Ashton Creek is a few kilometres east of Enderby.
The 33 students at the small school have been re-directed to M.V. Beattie and must now make the 15-minute commute between the school and their small community.
But many parents never wanted this to happen.
Talk about closing the school began in February. The move would save the school board $400,000 every year.
But for parents like Diane Minaker and Crystal Cunningham, the tiny school is a crucial piece of Ashton Creek.
“It’s been here a long time,” Cunningham told CHBC News in February.
“I’m not going to compare our school to others but I can tell you there is a real sense of community here,” Minaker said.
Concerned parents who did not want their young children commuting to M.V. Beattie and who wanted small class sizes for their children began a petition to save the school. More than 150 signatures were collected in the end.
In March, the school board held a public meeting for parents, giving them a forum to voice their concerns. Parents used it as an opportunity to plead their case to district officials.
“I ask you all, what is a community without a school? Schools were built for the community and if this school closes, what will be left of ours?” one parent said during the meeting.
“I don’t want this school to close because it helped me in more ways than you could understand. I want other kids to have this chance too,” another parent voiced.
But there was declining enrolment at the school. Whereas it once saw an enrolment of more than 120 students in the 1990s, it was down to 33 for the 2011-2012 school year. And on April 10, the closure was finalized by the North Okanagan Shuswap school board.
“I think in September, it will be very difficult to give them the same quality of education that they’re getting today,” said Bobbi Johnson, a board chair for School District 83.
CHBC News visited Ashton Creek Elementary as it cleaned up after the last day of classes: chairs were piled on top of desks in empty classrooms; hallways empty and still, never to see students again.
“It does not feel good. It really does not feel good,” the school’s last principal Rudy Ingenhorst told CHBC News. “The school takes on a life of its own and right now, it just feels mortally wounded.”
A mix of emotions filled the principal as he contemplated the future.
“Sadness, because the community really has lost a very, very important part of its identity,” he said.
“Apprehension, not only on the part of students but parents too. And just a sense of loss I think.”
While it seemed Ingenhorst was taking the closure as best as he could, given the circumstances, it was obvious he knew the decision would not be reversed.
“There’s no way we’re going to re-open in the near future,” he said.
Sterling Olson, secretary treasurer for the school district, says there are currently no plans to tear down Ashton Creek Elementary.
Olson says the school board has reached out to the community to see if anyone wants to take over the building. He says a few groups have stepped forward expressing interest in using the facility for community services.
Olson says the board will make a decision within the next two months about whether to lease or sell the building.
It remains to be seen how the former Ashton Creek students will adjust to their new school and whether they will take a liking to it, but one fact is a surety: Ashton Creek Elementary School is just the latest school in the B.C. Interior to close down.
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