Shared Vision for the Future: Growing a Community from the Ground Up

Shared Vision for the Future: Growing a Community from the Ground Up

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

Kevin Van Lagen, aka the Prairie Principal, travelled the gravel roads from Altario School to Delnorte School in Innisfree on April 14 to share a one-of-akind success story with parents, students and community members.

He came at the invitation of Delnorte School’s Sustainability Committee whose members are searching for ideas and ways to keep the school not only viable, but to make it thrive and grow for generations to come.

Kevin Van Lagen.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

This is where Van Lagen comes in. He has taken a rural school, “in the middle of nowhere” and helped transform it into a unique place of learning which has fostered the growth of local families and breathed new life into the entire community in the process.

Van Lagen said the school and community are synonymous. “It’s one in the same.” With that in mind they created their own unique vision for an agricultural academy. The programs and projects have grown by leaps and bounds since its inception only a few short years ago.

His presentation was entertaining and enlightening which drew a crowd of around 60 people, including school division representatives as well as elected officials from Minburn County and the Village of Innisfree.

“If I can give you a message tonight it’s this: the future of growing a community Innisfree is this building. Without this building there’s no future for Innisfree, no matter how you look at it. Schools do follow the communities that lose their schools. The community eventually goes. So, if you want to do something special in this community, if you’re proud of the community, it starts here…If come together and create unique vision as a school community, people will want to be here, the kids will want to be here, the school grows and it’s sustainable and vibrant.

Altario School tour.

(Lisa Anderson/Submitted Photo)

Tiffany Tomlinson, Acting Principal of Delnorte School, said with a strong agricultural base she can see the potential of fostering growth in that area as well as other areas of learning. “Traveling to Altario to attend the recent grand opening of its retail store and touring the school with students and seeing their excitement, energy and passion was truly inspiring.

Tomlinson said seeing what they’ve been able to achieve and how they’ve achieved it is absolutely doable. And if they can do it there, it can be done anywhere, including Innisfree.”

Sustainability Committee member Bobbi Bouchier also attended the event at Altario School and found the experience to be inspirational and insightful. She hopes they will be able to build on that.

Sustainability Committee Chair Lisa Anderson said they have been tossing around ideas to help boost enrolment in the K-Grade 12 school, which currently sits at 60 students. Committee members, which includes four parents and one community member, are looking into the possibility of programbased learning. She said it involves hands on learning which allows students to be more actively involved in their education.

Modernization Project was completed in 2010.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

“We want to bring something different into the school and deliver education differently,” added Anderson. About a month ago they surveyed parents asking them what they like and don’t like about the school and types of options they would like to see in the school. The next step is to ask students Grade 7-12 students those same questions. Based on the feedback they will creating a vision for the 2022-’23 school year.

Innisfree Mayor Jennifer Johnson is hoping they will be able to work together in the future, and said the Village will assist them as much as possible.

Derek Saskiw graduated from DelnorteSchool in 2009. Both his father and his grandfather attended the school. He and his wife are expecting their first child and he’s hoping they will be able to send their little one to school in Innisfree. He describes Delnorte School as a second family. “Without a school you have no community.”

Grade 9 student Camille Kassian said she wouldn’t want to be at any other school. She knows everyone and said the teachers know each student personally. Kassian said there are 10 students in her class and that having small sized classes is very beneficial.

She does like the agricultural aspect of the program at Altario and raising animals. She has been a member of the Innisfree-Minburn 4-H Beef Club for the past seven years and said she would like to see some ag based programs as well as other options like carpentry offered in the school.