Don't close Hume Park School
The Record (New Westminster)
April 22, 2009
By: Margot Barton

Dear Editor:

Re: McBride could handle Hume Park students, The Record, April 18.

I am writing in regards to my comments on accommodating students at McBride if Hume Park Elementary were to close.

Reporter Niki Hope did an accurate job of reporting the interview, but she didn't ask me whether or not I thought it was a good idea for the New Westminster School board to close Hume Park.

For the record, I think it would be a great shame to close Hume Park Elementary. The school offers a cozy intimacy that is almost never found in a school in an urban setting, and I think once it was lost, if would be impossible to regain…..

But as well, the fate of the before- and after-school care at Hume Park would be in question. Unless the school district houses some other group of students in Hume's building, the school would have to be opened specifically for daycare kids and staff to access washrooms etc. before and after school so the daycare could continue to function. All of a sudden, the savings realized by closing the school are further diminished, because district staff would have to be on hand to open and close the school, and it would have to continue to be heated and lit. If the school were to be sold outright - which is another rumour I've heard - then I don't see how the daycare could continue to operate….