The concept of creating two new Kindergarten to Grade 8 schools in the district has won favour with parents in the area.
School District #83 held public meetings on adding additional grades into Silver Creek and Ranchero Elementary schools last week. On paper, both School are currently K-7, however, the school district required the transfer of Silver Creek’s Grade 6/7 students to Shuswap Middle School this year. This was because the school district could not justify the financial cost of adding another teacher to Silver Creek, with the low enrolment numbers in those grades.
While Ranchero is slated to remain open, Silver Creek is one of two schools in the district being eyed for closure. A decision on possible shut-down for the school will be made in 2017. This is making parents in the area even more eager to bring in Grade 8 students to bolster the enrolment at the rural school.
“Going K-8 is educationally sound and will save the district money and be in-line with the desires of the community,” said Noah Ralston, representing the Silver Creek Parent Advisory Council. “It seems like an easy decision.”
Parents from both schools citied positive benefits of adding Grade 8 to their schools including keeping kids in the community longer, offering shorter bus rides and providing one less transition for students, as they would bypass the middle school and go from their community school into Salmon Arm Secondary. Ranchero students only attend Shuswap Middle School for Grade 8 before moving to Grade 9 at Salmon Arm Secondary.
Enrolment at Silver Creek is expected to shift from 41 students in the current K-5 format to 63 students in K-8 for the 2017 school year, while Ranchero is expected to see enrolment increase from 112 to 121.
The move would necessitate additional three-grade or possibly even four-grade split classes in the schools. Ralston, however says this is not a concern for Silver Creek parents.
“The parents of those children know the benefits of multi-grade classes and know the benefits of a small school outweigh the long bus ride to a very large school for these children” says Ralston. “One of the parents at the meeting quoted her son as saying, ‘the students at Silver Creek don’t see each other as grades. They see each other as friends.’”
Both schools are also hoping to encourage enrolment in their schools by providing a different educational option for parents who might wish to cross-boundary transfer.
The decision about whether the two schools will convert to K-8 will be made at the May 10 board meeting, after the Observer’s press time.