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'Disappointment, sense of loss' at Royston Elementary

Dear editor, Re: Reconfiguration of classes at Royston Elementary. I am writing with great concern about the decision to split classrooms at Royston Elementary rather than add staff.

Dear editor,

Re: Reconfiguration of classes at Royston Elementary.

I am writing with great concern about the decision to split classrooms at Royston Elementary rather than add staff.

These decisions should have been, and I'm curious as to why they weren't, anticipated before school commenced.

My concern is that the board and district do not appear to have applied common sense nor demonstrated concern for the social development and community of these young students. They have chosen to disrupt every classroom in the school to meet their aggregate numbers rather than add more staff.

Children go through this publicly funded education system with their peers. In their classrooms they share antics, work together, create memories and friendships that often last a lifetime.

There are enough numbers in this Grade 2 group to create a class. Why break it up?

They have taken six little Grade 2 students away from their schoolmates. We are a rural community, these are their friends, they grow, learn and play together.

Our whole family is feeling the disappointment and sense of loss that our young Grade 2 student is experiencing as she parts from her friends in the hall and goes a separate way for the day. In her heart and ours, the School district has let us down.

Who could ever imagine that allegedly smart, caring, educated, professional persons, entrusted with the most vulnerable members of our families, would choose to create such chaos and heartache just to satisfy some fluctuating, innate numbers column?

I can only conclude that something other than the best interest of our children is at play in the boardroom and district offices of SD71. They should explain why they chose to reorganize the classroom numbers at Royston Elementary rather than add staff as they did at Brooklyn.

Sid Thom,

Royston