Bradner Voices it's K-5 Reconfiguration Opinion with Signs

1/15/2016

By Heather Lemieux,

Signs were put up in Bradner to voice the stance of the community in opposition of the Abbotsford School Board's proposed plan to reconfigure Bradner Elementary from a Grade K-7 - to a K-5.

This proposal is being expedited by the school board leaving parents rushed into a decision to leave Bradner school or risk their children having to attend Eugene Reimer Middle School right beside Rick Hansen Secondary. The majority of Bradner parents are withdrawing their children to cross-district in Langley, register at private schools or home school because they do not want to send their children to end up in Eugene Reimer, Middle Schools in general and want their right to choose what's best for their children to be protected. This plan includes 6 rural farm community schools in Abbotsford. If it goes through hundreds of children will be forced to leave their communities or be bussed nearly ten's of kilometres to inner city schools.

The Abbotsford School Board issued a single page letter

with a tiny bit of information on this reconfiguration on November 24th, 2015 and will reach a decision at the end of February 2016. Leaving parents scrambling to plan for the next school year because registration for cross-district, private schools and homeschooling begins now, in January 2016.

The school board posted this on their website - The Board of Education is considering the reconfiguration of remaining grade K-7 elementary schools in the district to K-5. The six elementary schools are: Barrowtown and Upper Sumas on the east side of the district; Aberdeen, Bradner, Mt. Lehman, and Ross on the west side. In addition, the Board will consider realigning the catchment area for Barrowtown and Upper Sumas to be part of the Abbotsford Middle and Secondary school catchments. If approved, this would take effect in the 2016-17 school year. The Board will conduct a consultation process including January public information meetings as well as establish other channels for providing feedback. The Board has tentatively scheduled consideration of the reconfiguration at their regular meeting on February 23, 2016.

Help Parents... TODAY

Join the Facebook group Save our K-7 Schools.

SIGN the ONLINE PETITION

Please send LETTERS from yourselves, businesses or whomever from all of the communities affected! (the more letters the better) contact info below and spread the word about the meetings, POST SIGNS, lets get all demographics there from the all communities attending - the MEETINGS are:

Tuesday, January 19th, 7pm at Upper Sumas Elementary
Thursday, January 21st, 7pm at Mt. Lehman Elementary
Tuesday, January 26th, 7pm at Aberdeen Elementary

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016, consideration (Board decision) of the reconfiguration at their regular meeting at the DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION/SCHOOL BOARD OFFICE - 2790 Tims St, Abbotsford, BC V2T 4M7

Please send all correspondence and letters to:

Phil Anderson, Phil_Anderson@sd34.bc.ca
Freddy Latham, freddy_latham@sd34.bc.ca
Rhonda Pauls, rhonda_pauls@sd34.bc.ca34.bc.ca OR boardchair@sd34.bc.ca
Stan Petersen, stan_petersen@sd34.bc.ca
Preet Rai, preet_rai@sd34.bc.ca
Cindy Schafer, cindy_schafer@sd34.bc.ca
Shirley Wilson, shirley_wilson@sd34.bc.ca
Kevin Godden, Superintendent, Corissa_Stgeorge@sd34.bc.ca
Trustee, Kevin Godden, Superintendent’s assistant: Corissa_Stgeorge@sd34.bc.ca
Abbotsford School District Contacts can be found here.

Thank you on Behalf of all Parents at Bradner Elementary!

Signs in Bradner BC Reconfiguration K-5 K-7

Bradner Elementary circa 1890 - Present, lets keep it that way! Image Source - unknown submission

3 Comments

Lara

1/16/2016 08:34:05 am

I am a concerned local parent who has a child that will be directly affected by these changes, she is currently in grade 5. Could you please clarify what the "risk" at Eugene Reimer is.

Thank you,

One concerned parent

Heather Lemieux

1/16/2016 02:30:00 pm

Hi Lara,

The concern is that huge amounts of Middle School research shows a significant decrease in academic scores for children all across North America. Also, the demographic at Eugene Reimer is out of balance, the crime rate in West Abbotsford has risen dramatically - so dramatically that Townline and Blueridge roads are under 24hour security camera surveillance. Bradner parents would like their children to remain in their rural home communities - at least until their children develop strong leadership skills and self-esteem. Thanks! Heather

Sharon

1/20/2016 11:50:09 am

Yes I am very opposed to K-5 for our rural schools for many reasons! HOWEVER, people are spreading rumours about what they THINK Eugene Reimer and Rick Hansen are like. Although enrollment for both of these schools has been declining, it is mostly due to rumours that people are circulating about these two schools. I have had 2 daughters attend ER and are now at RH, and they are both doing very well at school. We have had NO CONCERNS at all about their safety at either of these schools. Their is very little crime at these two schools, actually less than the other middle schools and secondary schools in Abbotsford, as confirmed by an RCMP member at the ER parents meeting last Thursday.
Yes, there is a high South Asian enrollment at both of these schools, which people talk about, but no one seems to want to put into type, there is no denying that; these two schools seem more uni-cultural than multicultural, but is that because so many of the catchment students that are NOT South Asian are choosing NOT to go there? Parents are creating the very thing they are complaining about!
Both Eugene Reimer and Rick Hansen have great teachers and administrative staff. They don't offer some of the variety of programs or classes that some other schools do, but that is simply because of not having the enrollment to do so. That would change if more people were choosing to send their children there.
Go check them out for yourself and ask the kids that go there what they think, not just listen to the rumours, and then make your choice.
With that said, K-7 has been great for our children, and we choose to keep our kids at Bradner with only one year at middle school. NOT because we don't like Eugene Reimer, but because we LOVE our Bradner community and what our K-7 School has to offer our kids.