Category: Aberdeen

Limited & Restricted: K-7 Rural School Update

3/10/2017

By Heather Lemieux - Bradner, BC - Abbotsford parents are once again reeling after the Abbotsford School District issued a letter yesterday stating "there is insufficient seats to support the number of registered catchment students in the 2017/18 school year."

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Abbotsford Hikes School Bus Fees for Families

5/5/2016

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Abbotsford school bus service fee increase Abbotsford School District Bradner School

Abbotsford School District Busses - Source - Facilities, Abbotsford School District

Bradner, BC - Editorial, By Heather Lemieux - A meeting was held last night regarding bussing in the Abbotsford School District. Ray Velestuk, Secretary-Treasurer of the Abbotsford School Board said that the district looked at getting rid of bussing ENTIRELY or increasing the amount bussed students pay by 3 or 4 times.

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ERROR - Abby News Poll Results on K-5

3/12/2016

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Abbotsford News Poll Error K-5 Abbotsford School District Abbotsford BC Shirley Wilson School Board Trustee

Source - Abby News, print edition (reproduced)

The Abbotsford News misreported results from last week's poll about the Abbotsford School Board's decision to strip the top two grades out of all Abbotsford rural schools including Bradner and Mt Lehman.

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Parents Disgusted as School District Moves All Rural Abbotsford Schools to K-5

2/25/2016

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Bradner Abbotsford Schools Abbotsford School District Trustees Board of Education Reconfiguration of 6 rural schools to K-5 in 2017

Source - Bradner Elementary District Website

By Heather Lemieux, On February 23rd, 2016 exhausted parents and members of the community attended the Abbotsford Board of Education meeting to hear the trustees vote on the fate of rural Abbotsford schools.

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What's Going on @ Dunach??

2/10/2016

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Dunach Elementary Closed Abbotsford School District k-5 reconfiguration

Overflowing bins at Dunach Elementary School - Source - Submitted by Matthew McMath

Dunach Elementary School Abbotsford BC Abbotsford School District

Abbotsford School District vans are seen often parked outside Dunach Elementary School - Source - Submitted by Matthew McMath

By Heather Lemieux, Editor - What on earth is going on at Dunach Elementary School? The Abbotsford School District closed this school in June 2010 and boarded up the windows. The Abbotsford Police have been seen there frequently as it is thought that they are conducting parts of their training in the building, but not lately. Over the last few months there has been School District staff, contractors and equipment doing various upgrades and construction. Today, a Bradner parent saw a huge garbage bin outside with tables, chairs, projectors and equipment... why the school district is being so hush hush...?!

On February 3rd, 2016, trustees Kevin Godden and the School Board Treasurer attended Bradner Elementary School for a meeting with Bradner parents who posed questions from every possible angle, re-phrased and re-worded to get results. Straight answers were almost non-existent. The only question they answered without smoke in mirrors or trotting down bunny trails was, "Did the district buy land on the east side of Abbotsford for a new school?"

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HOW the Initiative, Referenda, and Recall system can SAVE our Abbotsford K-7's

1/13/2016

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BC The Initiative, Referenda, and Recall system, or IRR system NO K-5 Save our K-7

Happy Bradner pre-teens - let them thrive in THEIR community! Image Source - Bradner Elementary School Newsletter, published online

By Heather Lemieux,

Bradner BC - The Initiative, Referenda, and Recall system, or IRR system is an initiative process through which a registered voter can propose a new law or changes to an existing law on matters over which the provincial legislature has authority. A voter must collect signatures from 10% of the registered voters in each of the province’s electoral districts for an initiative petition to succeed.

The initiative process is unique to BC – no other province or territory in Canada has initiative legislation....! So how can this IRR system be used to save our education system in BC and our K-7's in Abbotsford?

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Where your Childs School Funding REALLY GOES in BC

1/12/2016

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Image Source - Education Bureaucracy "Of all the public bureaucratic systems, education is perhaps the most puzzling. Provincial authorities and school boards all purport to put “children first"!"

By Russ Walsh,

Bradner BC - Given the uproar caused by Abbotsford School District's ill-advised, seemingly unilateral decision to tear the upper grades from Bradner Elementary and five (5) others (Mt Lehman, Aberdeen, Ross, Barrowtown & Upper Sumas) and transplant them to a distant, foreign school across town, called a 'Middle School', not of parents' choosing, it's time to uncover the flaw inherent in the current school system that allows travesties such as this to occur in the first place. Take this time to read on and find out for yourself what your child's school funding from the government actually gets spent on... it's shocking.

There are three (3) school systems in British Columbia. The 'public' system, the independent system and the home school program. There are currently 2,100 home school students in BC....

Two of my grandchildren are in the homeschool program. A report called Home Schooling in Canada: The CURRENT PICTURE – 2015 EDITION released says that between 2007 and 2012, enrolment in Canadian home schools went up by 29%. For the same period,

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Barn Burning Research on Middle Schools

1/9/2016

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Abbotsford Middle Schools Bradner Barker

Image Source: Dueitt Middle School

By Russ Walsh,

The following is a summary of the Middle School article mentioned in a recent Bradner Baker article and The Middle School Mess, by Peter Meyer. These entire articles are focused on getting the hell out of the Middle School quagmire! Everyone else, it seems, is bailing on Middle Schools.... except Abbotsford.

The Middle School Mess
- If you love bungee jumping, you’re the middle school type...

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Bradner School, Damned if we do... Damned if we don't!

1/8/2016

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Bradner elementary students Bradner Daffodils

Bradner elementary students learn to grow famous Bradner Daffodils

Bradner is a school steeped in tradition, with roots reaching into the late 1800's. Bradner is a community school and many of past students still live and work in the area, sharing a common bond and continue the generations of Bradner pupils by having their children attend Bradner.

Bradner follows many traditions - preparing our locals children for the future with grass-roots upbringing in a community that supports each other, where everyone knows each other, families help one another, lifetime friendships are nurtured and maintained, rural life is the way of life and has been for generations. It takes a village to raise a child - author unknown which focuses on the core fact that there is a measurable impact on children when individuals and groups outside the family, for better or worse, affect a child's well-being.

With the proposed rural school grade re-configuration plan the school board is in a win win situation - The Bradner Barker has received inside information that the Abbotsford School District's long term goal is to close rural schools, so they have brought a short notice re-configuration plan and parents are reacting by withdrawing their children, surveys are being completed now at all schools to show the loss of major student numbers of current grade 5's AND their younger siblings... This news was sprung on parents on November 24th, 2015 and if it goes through will take effect September 2016 - leaving parents with Grade 5 children, scrambling to make a decision.

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