'School Monitor' group vows closure battle
The Daily Townsman - Cranbrook
February 19, 2008
By: Gerry Warner

There's going to be "repercussions" in November if the Southeast Kootenay District 5 School Board continues with its plans to close or "repurpose" another Cranbrook elementary school.

That's the warning from "School Monitor," a parents activist group that has linked up with the Cranbrook District Teachers Association (CDTA) to oppose any more school closures in the city…

Using the District's own figures, the School Monitor group analyzed enrolment trends in the District and found there are 70 more elementary students enrolled in Cranbrook this year than there was last year even though District officials claim enrolment is going down. "So why are they asking us to close elementary schools in Cranbrook?" says Ayling….

Ayling and Johns are proposing an option of their own in place of more school closures. They call it KIS (Cranbrook Integrated Services), but say they can't get the Board to pay any attention to it.

KIS is based on a model already in use by the Boundary School District in Grand forks and emphasizes an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to education featuring new ideas such as using schools as community and family centres with all-day kindergarten, daycare and early childhood development programming.

Similar examples of innovative educational programming was featured in last week's speech from the Throne, but trustees don't seem to be interested, says Johns. "We presented them with a viable alternative that has worked for seven years in the Boundary District and all we're asking is for them to step back from the brink and take a look at it. This is not a pie in the sky thing. It really works."…