‘I told you.’

You could see it in East Kootenay MLA Bill Bennett’s smile.

Minister of Education George Abbott, at the conclusion of an afternoon tour of Mount Baker Secondary School Jan. 27, was absorbing another round of passionate lobbying by a united coalition of Cranbrook and area citizens seeking a new high school and neighbourhood learning centre.

Along for his umpteenth tour of the old Baker Street school, Bennett told Abbott the next time he visits he’ll give him the nitty gritty tour, including a crawl through the basement, to make sure he really understands how in need Cranbrook and area is of a new school.

“I will continue to work with Bill,” Abbott stated. “Even in these financially challenging times we must look at where we need to make investments,” he offered, as Rocky Mountain School District board trustee Chris Johns handed him a petition asking for a new school and learning centre. Bennett’s name was the first on the petition, Johns noted.

“It’s a needed piece. We need a new high school,” Bennett said.

Abbott told the gathering, held in the high school teachers’ lounge, “Bill is not shy with his advocacy.”

The education minister heard a wide variety of views, including those from representatives with the Neighbourhood Learning Centre Advisory Committee – namely from the Rocky Mountain School District, City of Cranbrook, First Nations, Cranbook Chamber of Commerce, College of the Rockies, the Mount Baker Parent Advisory Council and RCMP.

He also heard it, and saw it, in many different ways thanks to students in the school, with the Leadership Students conducting the tour, along with school administrative staff.

The tour began with a stop at the school’s music room, where Abbott and entourage were treated to a couple of songs by the school band and choir.

The lively stop impressed Abbott.

“This is what school should be like,” he said. “One hundred years ago when I

Next up was a stop into the school’s drama department and a video presentation and snippet from a recent school play, before the tour entered the Aboriginal Education room, where Ktunaxa students, elders and members of the school’s Wild Warriors (Metis community), as well as Mount Baker and school district staff spent a few minutes speaking with the education minister.

Abbott said he was pleased to see that an aboriginal language program was underway at the school, which is done in concert with College of the Rockies.

Akisqnuk elder Joan O’Neill, who drives down from Windermere to take Ktunaxa 101, said it has been interesting to step back into the school she attended in 1956.

“I’m walking down the same halls – it’s been nice,” she said.

Ktunaxa elder Herman Alpine, turning 69, also noted he attended Mount Baker.

“It’s such an old school,” he said, pressing Abbott to do what he can to help the area build a new facility. “The children we have are the leaders of tomorrow. It’s very important for you, today, to start on the straight road.”

The education minister was also asked to think about officially designating aboriginal education as part of the provincial school system.

“Your requests are both very reasonable and constructive ones,” Abbott said, before his tour continued into the school: to various classrooms and labs, through the tiny cafeteria, to the gym and finally to the teachers’ lounge where Neighbourhood Learning Centre Advisory Committee members had a chance to address him.

Mayor Wayne Stetski said a new high school/learning centre would benefit the city in many ways.

“In a nutshell it is important for an economic and educational perspective, but also from a community aspect,” he said.

In closing, he added, “We need a university here, too!”

Ktunaxa representative Gwen Phillips said the learning centre is a vital need for the city and region.

“The approach to community learning is essential,” she said, pointing out that when she attended the school as a child, she didn’t feel a sense of community. Such a goal is attainable and needed, she added.

Regional Metis Nation director Terry Anderson, from Elkford, said the school was built “many years ago. We have an opportunity to get something that would be a showcase building. It will be an aboriginal learning centre, too. It’s for the entire community.”

COTR president Dr. Nick Rubidge said the proposal is a sound idea, noting the strong relationship between Mount Baker Secondary, School District No. 5 and the college.

Most COTR students are Mount Baker grads, he said. “They are remarkably well prepared,” he said, adding, considering “the modest facilities they do really well here.”

Chamber of Commerce president Lana Kirk said the learning centre is “a unique and innovative idea” and would help “make Cranbrook a great place and give students the resources so they can reach their full potential.”

Mount Baker PAC member Sandi Lavery said she was reticent to send her children to the school, explaining her reaction to the facility after a first tour was “eeww. But this is the place for kids to come to” short of anywhere else to go in the city.

“The sense of community is, in a sense, here” but the school needs to be replaced, she said, adding “enrollment is up” and a new facility will need to accommodate up to 1,000 students.

“If we build a facility for less than a thousand, we’ll be pack in portables,” she said.

RCMP Corp. Al Newtini said a learning centre “would be a success.”

He informed the education minister that positive steps are being taken in the community with youth, including a 13% reduction in alcohol use between 2005 and 2011. “Those are significant numbers,” he said. “We were leading the province in terms of alcohol use – us and the north” and now it is trending the other way.

“From a policy standpoint, we need this,” he said.

School district board trustee Trina Ayling provided some perspective on the facility for the minister. She noted that the school was built in 1949, “with several additions since then. It’s the largest school in the East and West Kootenays” and since 2008, the community has been lobbying for a new facility.

“We made it our number one priority as a board,” she said.

The process to establish the learning centre committee was also an intense one, she said, noting that more than 50 community groups provided input “as to what they’d like to see” and the neighbourhood learning centre evolved from that.

“We’ve done probably more work than any other district in the province” in terms of trying to establish such a facility, Ayling said.

“We really, really hope you will consider us as the next replacement,” she urged Abbott.

“I appreciate your advocacy,” Abbott told the gathering. “The school is getting pretty long in the tooth,” he said, joking he doesn’t see it being in any danger of being considered “a heritage building. The bricks and mortar may be getting old” but the teachers and staff have “done artists’ work” with what they have to work with.

Abbott said he was “enormously impressed by Mount Baker Secondary. The kids obviously love coming to school here. Seeing 125 kids in a choir and having the time of their lives – it is something to see,” he exclaimed.

He said he understood the needs and concerns and would take them back to Victoria with him.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

 

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