Letters sent to The Premier, Minister of Education, MLA's and Quesnel School District Trustees...
July 28, 2002
Honourable Christy Clark, Minister of Education
PO Box 9041, Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
Dear Hon. Clark:
We are writing to express our strong disagreement to the closing of the Wells-Barkerville School.
The decision, made behind closed doors by School District 28, will deny the wishes of Quesnel district constituents as it erodes the already tenuous lifeline that small schools have to offer to rural British Columbia. It will present a very real danger to the children who will be directly displaced by this action. They are the ones to be victimized by these decisions. The possibility of a recurrence of the school bus disaster portrayed in "The Sweet Hereafter" seems to be a real possibility here, and bussing two hours or more each day on a northern highway in the depth of winter hugely increases the odds.
There seems to be little financial justification for the decision, as it is highly improbable that the amount of $100,000 accurately reflects the amount spent maintaining this community school. This kind of rural mismanagement and deception only harms the relationship and the credibility of the School District Trustees in the eyes of the constituents.
From the perspective of the Provincial Government, nothing can justify such an attack on rural B.C. It is a total contradiction of this government's alleged mandate to support education, particularly in small towns and rural parts of this province. Those who have initiated or joined in the hunger strike have our full support. We urge a re-examination of this direction and hope that the School District trustees will see the full implications of this issue, discuss it in Caucus and make the right choice by overturning this counter-productive decision.
Sincerely,
Richard Tetrault, Esther Rausenberg, Dan Tetrault, Arnt
Arntzen, Valerie Arntzen
Paneficio Studios, Vancouver, BC