By Tina Comeau
FOR THE COURIER
NovaNewsNow.com
If you have even “a slight inkling” that closing Barton Consolidated School might not be the right decision, then vote to keep our doors open, Beth White, a representative of the Barton home and school association told Tri-County Regional School Board members at their Feb. 7 board meeting.
For White and others, there is no doubt that keeping the elementary school open is the right thing to do.
Just as people from Weymouth have done in recent months in fighting to keep their school open; parents, students, staff and community members crowded into the board offices in Yarmouth to urge the board not to close their school. The board will make its decision on March 27.
“I urge you to consider the whole aspect of Barton and the things that people are telling you,” said White. “You can rest easy in a decision to keep us open.”
White said small schools like Barton provide a wonderful and unique learning experience and she said the school, its students and its programs have a great reputation.
Barton has a population of just over 50 students. Its enrolment is projected to stay about the same over the coming years.
In referring to the board’s impact assessment report, White noted that the report states that closing Barton would have no impact on the schools receiving the students.
“Every action has a reaction and of course there would be an impact,” countered White. “Larger class sizes, less playground per student, higher student-teacher ratios and more stress on existing administration, to name a few.”
Barton doesn’t have a “proper” gymnasium, she noted, but it has a huge outdoor gymnasium that keeps children active and gets them outdoors. She said Barton students would have less access to a “proper” gymnasium in another school because it would be shared by more students. She also said closing the school would result in longer bus rides to and from school, and the overall cost savings to the board if Barton were closed is miniscule, accounting for less than one per cent of the board’s overall budget.
Tom Haynes-Paton, owner of the Japanese Gallery in Barton, spoke of the importance of the school to the sustainability and future of this rural part of the province.
“For the young families in our wider area who are presently served, and for the vitality it gives our community at large, our school is both exceptional and essential,” he said.
All of the schools under review by the school board – and there are three in Digby County: Barton, Weymouth and Westport – have submitted study committee responses to the board’s impact assessment reports.
“If the impact assessment report review was to provide adequate rationale for the closure of Barton School, it fell significant short,” reads the Barton response. “Enrolment is stable, the community is dependent on our school staying open and the physical construction is sound. There will be no educational advantages to our students that will come from closing Barton Consolidated School and the only advantage to the board will be a pittance of money.”
Last month a former student of Barton also appealed to the board to keep the school open. Jordan Amero is a Grade 12 student at Digby Regional High School. She credits a lot of her upbringing to the quality education that she and others received at Barton. She said as a Grade 6 student, when the question over Barton’s future also lingered, she couldn’t understand then why closure of the school would be a consideration.
“Why try to close down a school that is constantly known for its students strong academic standings? As a Grade 6 student I saw this as my family and I couldn’t understand why people were trying to close it down and it really bothered me,” she said.
Today the issue is no less confusing to her.
She said the school offers opportunities to students that larger schools don’t.
“This school right now serves people from five years old to grandparents” she said.
“I’d like to remind you all that Barton isn’t only a school it’s a community and it’s a family. Closing it down would be a huge mistake. If you spend just one day in that school, and I go back often, you will see the magic that happens there.”
See also: Decision day for four schools on March 27
