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.
Over half the electorate of Creighton and Denare Beach have signed a petition to have the high school issue revisited, organizer Buz Trevor said yesterday. Although six petition sheets have yet to be handed in, Trevor said there's no doubt organizers reached their goal of 700 signatures. "Without exception, everybody who was canvassing who's reported back said they had more people sign than not," he said. The goal of 700 signatures represents 52 per cent of the approximately 1,350 electors within the Creighton School Division. When the entire population is considered, 700 signatures represents about 30 per cent of people in Creighton and Denare Beach. "Terry Brown's silent majority doesn't exist," said Trevor, referring to a comment made by the Creighton School Board chairman about support for the high school among ratepayers. Not everyone who signed the petition necessarily opposes the establishment of a high school in Creighton. The petition calls for a review of the high school issue, not that it be aborted. See 'Refined' P.# Con't from P.# One Creighton resident told The Reminder that while he favours having a high school, he does not agree with how the board went about the process. He said he felt that opponents of the high school did not have their voices heard. Trevor estimated that the petition drive reached approximately 80 per cent of the electorate. "We hit every street. We didn't get everybody at home," he said. The petition calls for the Creighton School Board to rescind its high school vote "pending a further and more refined analysis of available options" that would include residents of Flin Flon. Organizers of the petition, who belong to a group calling itself Citizens for Better Education, plan to present the petition to the Creighton board at the board's meeting on January 28. The meeting had previously been scheduled for January 29. The Creighton board voted 4-2 last month to incorporate a high school program into Creighton Community School, one year at a time, beginning in September of 2004. Reasons given for the decision included projected financial obstacles without the program, preventing teacher layoffs, and allowing Creighton's Aboriginal students to receive their secondary education in a familiar environment. "By 2007, Creighton school, if we were to stay as we are, would have almost $450,000 less in grants," said Creighton School Board Chairman Terry Brown in a previous interview. "That would have a devastating effect on our system. This will offset that. Instead of having $450,000 less in grants, we could be looking at $160,000 on the positive side." But opponents, including members of Citizens for Better Education, don't believe there are enough Ñ if any Ñ good reasons to establish the new program. Anyone interested in becoming involved with Citizens for Better Education is invited to attend an informal meeting this Tuesday, January 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the banquet room at RJ's Motel. A 47-page report released in early October by a task force assembled by the Creighton board concluded that it is feasible to add grades 10, 11 and 12 to the school. The board says it will offer a pallet of nearly 80 classroom courses, including high-level offerings like chemistry, calculus and biology, even if enrollments are small. This was the seventh attempt in nearly 40 years by various Creighton school boards to establish a high school program. Previous efforts in 1964, 1982, 1994, 1998, 1999 and 2001 fell by the wayside.
