The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Way back in kindergarten, I recall overhearing some classmates chattering about an amazing new movie called The Neverending Story. The Neverending Story? Being gullible, perhaps even for a five-year-old, I envisioned an enormous videotape containing a film that literally had no conclusion. It just went on and on. The Creighton high school debate seems like that imaginary videotape. For better or for worse, the topic continues to pop up at water coolers, restaurants and living rooms Ñ probably not as much as it once did, but it's still there. Of course by now, most of the pro and con arguments, touted by some very intelligent men and women, are well known. We've read them in the paper and we've heard them in conversation. A central issue for opponents is educational quality. They wonder how Creighton can possibly offer as good an education with so fewer students compared to the Flin Flon high schools. It just doesn't add up to them. They're met with the argument that size doesn't necessarily matter when it comes to school quality. Aren't small classrooms, they ask, a good thing? Don't other kindergarten to grade 12 schools do just fine? For opponents, a new high school is the last thing this area needs in light of a declining student population. They see Creighton is a component of a single community that just happens to have three different names Ñ Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach. Should one component make a decision that could hurt another? How can we not pool our resources? Proponents counter that the issue simply isn't about Flin Flon; it's about what's best for Creighton and its only school. Creighton, they say, is its own entity, responsible to its own students and taxpayers. They agree that the implications of removing students from the Flin Flon system are regrettable but believe the potential cutting of programs at Creighton school would be regrettable, too. Since the Creighton School Board voted to establish the high school two months ago, most frustrated opponents are in agreement with the feeling that their voices were not heard. On the other hand, some high school supporters had that same concern before the high school vote took place. What makes this debate particularly difficult at times is that opponents and supporters don't always agree on what the facts of the case are. Some opponents, for instance, don't believe the new high school development is in fact feasible, as a report on the matter concluded. Then there are some supporters who feel that the necessity of the high school has been greatly understated. Is this debate our version of The Neverending Story? Only time will tell.
