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Parents call for expanded grades at Point Roberts

By Meg Olson

ÒWe know our priorities: schools and borders,Ó said one of close to 100 community members at the most well-attended meeting since the NEXUS program was unveiled last June.

On January 22 Jack Thomspon, a consultant hired by the school district to evaluate the feasibility of a K-12 school in Point Roberts, came to the Point to get community feedback on the idea. He got an earful.

ÒWe know how much weÕre contributing per student and we feel we could be getting more services here,Ó said one parent. From access to after school programs to the stress of a long bus ride and ease of parent involvement, many attending the meeting felt the Point Roberts school should be expanded, perhaps all the way through high school. ÒThe parents canÕt be involved when the school is so far away,Õ said Debbie Wilkowski. She added that while parents were cut off from schools by the two-border separation, children were cut off from their community. ÒAll the teenagers are gone. We donÕt know them and we need them in our community.Ó Linda Hughes agreed. ÒMore young families are moving here and the school is the heart of that community,Ó she said.

Other parents were adamant that the larger Blaine school system provided students with educational, social and recreational opportunities that werenÕt feasible on the Point. ÒOur children are already isolated. To take them from Blaine schools where they have a whole litany of offerings would be a terrible disservice,Ó said Renee Coe.

Blaine high school senior Celeste Fraser said the bus ride had been a small price to pay for a productive high school experience. ÒAdding a school here we wouldnÕt have the same teaching as we had in Blaine or the same opportunities,Ó she said. ÒIn ways going to Blaine has been a hardship but it has helped us. IÕd rather have the bus ride than a smaller school with less of an education.Ó

Sue Schroeder said that even with very strong teaching a smaller school would not give older children what they needed. ÒIf my daughter goes to Point Roberts she may get the grades but she wonÕt get the extracurricular activities,Ó she said. ÒI canÕt ever see a Point Roberts football team.Ó

Other parents fell in between. ÒIÕm not talking about yanking all the teenagers but looking at expanding the grade ability of our school slowly, more support for homeschoolers, all those options,Ó said an audience member. ÒWe want to know whatÕs best for our kids.Ó

Art Wilkowski, one of a group of parents who asked the Blaine school board to look into the feasibility of expanding the school said the study was more about what was possible rather than what was best, and determining that might be a next step. ÒTo have more grades or not now is just a matter of opinion. LetÕs look at the needs. If there are 200 kids in 20 years how do we deal with that,Ó he said. The Point Roberts primary school now has 32 students in kindergarten to third grade.

There were some suggestions that the length of the bus ride, comensurate with time spent by students in other rural areas, was not the problem. ÒIÕm concerned about safety,Ó said one parent. ÒIÕve heard stories of sex, drugs and bullying on the bus and the driver canÕt turn around and supervise going 100 kilometers per hour on the freeway.Ó

There was some concensus that bus monitors for the Point Roberts bus might be an easy solution that could be addressed outside any long-range planning process. Schroeder added that new WTA community vans would help solve the issue of access to after school activities.

Thompson said the scope of the study he was hired to complete for $2,000 could not begin to answer the question of what was best for Point Roberts students. ÒYou may need a much more involved study,Ó he said. ÒI need to go back to the board and tell them what they have asked me to do and what you are asking are very different,Ó he said. Thompson will meet with the board January 31 and present them with that quandary and some specific suggestions about how it could be addressed.

One possibility suggested by several audience members was to expand the study and start by developing a community survey to gauge the educational priorities in the community. ÒTalk to the kids,Ó Coe said. ÒItÕs important to ask them what they want.Ó

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