Dear editor,
The closure of Puntledge Park and reconfiguration of Lake Trail School make no sense at all.
This land was donated by the Morrison family and includes the following park lands: Roy Morrison Park, Malcolm Morrison Park, and Morrison Senior Park, and the two school sites Puntledge Park Elementary School and Lake Trail Middle School. The Morrison family donated this land to insure that our community had local parks and schools including a very healthy and productive Morrison Creek.
Morrison Creek is next to Puntledge Park Elementary School which adds greatly to the students’ education and knowledge of our salmon-bearing creeks and river systems.
Our neighbourhoods are built around public schools. We are losing neighbourhoods with each school closure. Many families feel their children are not getting quality education when the students must be bused to school right past the neighbourhood school you just closed that they could and did walk to. Most students in B.C. no longer get enough exercise because parents are forced to drive their kids to school because they are too far or too dangerous to let their kids walk or ride bikes.
This hurts their health and costs the province for treatment. They have less access to before and after school programs due to their need for busing.
I very much feel the school closures in B.C. should stop now! Or at least be postponed until at least six months after the next provincial election, hoping whoever forms the next government treasures the right to be publicly and locally educated as much as I do.
When the public remains on the hook for all the upkeep, heating, maintenance, landscaping, insurance, and many other costs for all these closed schools in the province, doesn’t it make far more sense to be providing quality education in those buildings with enough staff to assist all our students?
Stephanie Nathan
Comox Valley