Emotions Run High During Andrew Town Hall Meeting

Emotions Run High During Andrew Town Hall Meeting

Michelle Pinon News Advertiser

Emotions were running high during a town hall meeting at the Andrew Community Centre Friday evening, (June 23), as community members, and members of village council discussed the future of its school.

The meeting, organized by the Village of Andrew, garnered 17 attendees who discussed a variety of issues and concerns as well as generated a few ideas during the hour and a half long meeting.

Mayor Sheila Lupul chaired the meeting, and thanked everyone for attending, including Colleen Holowaychuk, who graduated from Andrew School, and currently sits on the board of trustees for Elk Island Public Schools, (EIPS). She represents schools in Andrew, Bruderheim, Lamont and Mundare.

Lupul admitted she is scared about the future of Andrew School, and said that if the school closes down, you might as well “roll up the streets” in the community. The school is the hub of the community, and Lupul said they called the meeting so they could talk about the future of the school and what options they may have available to them in order to create a new path forward.

“We are here to brainstorm how we can increase enrollment in our school, maybe offer different programs in our school, make the best of what we can.

There’s other communities surrounding us that are in worse positions with their schools, and they have done a complete turn-around, and they’ve done it through the community. Round Hill is a perfect example of that. Their school was closing and the community stood up and said no, I don’t think they’re going to close the school. And they got behind the school, and it is up and going and it’s very successful so far. Innisfree is another school in our area that was facing the same thing. Our school is so important, if we loose it, we roll up the streets, right.

I appreciate our trustee, Colleen for coming. I just assured her that we weren’t here to bash her.” Holowaychuk replied, “I knew this community wouldn’t do that.” Lupul went on to say, “She’s like all of us, she is one vote. What our ultimate plan is, hopefully we can form a committee of community members and we can do some research as to how we can keep our school. I’m scared. Our high school, the junior high went, what’s next? In order to keep our school we need community support. We need your help, we need your friends help, and we need your relatives help, and your neighbours help. We just have to figure out what we can do.”

Councillor Gary Leppek stated, “We’re not stuck with what Elk Island is telling us.” Leppek, was in attendance with Deputy Mayor Ken Hamaliuk, Councillor Herb Fedun, and Councillor Osama Hamed. They were joined by Lamont County Councillor Roy Anaka, who represents the Andrew area for the municipality.

It was pointed out several times that “it’s a numbers game” and they will have to find ways to increase enrollment, if they want to secure a viable future for the school. Starting in September they will be operating K-Grade 6. Back on May 14,the board of trustees voted to close the school’s junior high program due to declining enrollment.

That was a controversial decision, one was made without notifying the village, said Coun. Leppak. “We found out on Facebook. How low can you go.” He also pointed out the village only received the official letter of notification from EIPS only a couple of days ago.

During a special meeting of village council on June 10 members decided to host a town hall meeting and notified people via Facebook, posters, mail out, and word of mouth, said Lupul.

“I was hoping for more parents that are directly affected, but I am glad that the parents that attended are as involved as they are,” stated Lupul.

A total of 12 people agreed to sit on the committee and set a date of July 6 for their inaugural meeting.