INSIDE

Parents petition for long-term school approach

By Meg Olson

Two dozen Point Roberts parents are petitioning the Blaine school district board to draft a long-term strategy for handling fluctuating enrollment at the local primary school, rather than shrinking services when the student population dips.

“The board can no longer look at this campus short-term and on a yearly basis,” said parent teacher organization (PTO) member Elaine Komusi following a February 22 gathering at the community center. “If we become complacent, accept low enrollment numbers and decrease the services at the campus as a result, then we will surely send parents of younger children looking for other schooling options.”

With a bumper crop of third graders heading for the Blaine campus in the fall, enrollment at the local primary is expected to drop from 27 to 21 in the 2005/2006 school year. Komusi said the Blaine school board was already looking at cutting a teacher’s position at the school last year, but accepted a plan from the two primary school teachers to reduce other services such as counseling and instructional materials, instead. “The drop in enrollment could mean a further reduction in funds directed to the Point Roberts campus,” she said.

Point Roberts primary school principal Nancy Bakarich said there were no plans at this time for cuts at the school. “We have not, as a team, looked at anything yet,” she said. “We’re just starting to talk budget.”
Komusi said parents at the meeting whose children had intended to go into kindergarten at Point Roberts primary in the fall had indicated they would look into other, less unstable, schooling options, such as Canadian private schools. “If this continues to be an annual review, we feel it sends a message of instability and any efforts we make to reach out to the community and bring these families to the school will be for naught,” she said. Ultimately the concern is that less services will drive down enrollment, which will in turn drive funding further down and the circle could continue until the school’s basic viability is compromised.

Parents also wanted more specific information about how the school board decides which school gets how much money, and how the local school’s special remote and necessary funding from the state fits into the local school’s budget. “There was a general concern that our district gives very little consideration to our unique situation,” Komusi said.

Twelve people at the meeting signed the petition asking the school board to develop a strategy and funding plan for the Point Roberts school reviewed every five years, and 18 copies left for distribution in the community. The PTO is also asking parents and community members to write to the school board before March 20, “not only parents of school-age children but the community as a whole,” Komusi said. PTO president Linda Hughes will present the petition and other letters to the school board at their March 28 meeting.

PTO members also agreed that to get wide community support they needed to work on a higher profile in the community, including inviting the town to some school activities, and working more closely with the local preschool, home school families and daycares. “These families would also like to see their tax dollars work for services at the local campus – they may be able to utilize programs,” Komusi said. “We really need the support of the whole community on this.”

To sign the petition, call Komusi at 945-1956 or Hughes at 945-0812.