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.
Living in Flin Flon, we're always in a battle for government funding with larger southern centres Ð and the deck is clearly stacked in the latter's favour. But not everything we would like to see up north is worthwhile. Take Parkdale School, whose original wing, we officially learned this week, has a date with a wrecking crew. It would have been deeply irresponsible for the Public Schools Finance Board to commit even half of the approximately $2.5 million needed to bring the school up to snuff. Though it may be disheartening for those attached to Parkdale, Flin Flon simply doesn't need it, at least as an elementary school. Flin Flon school enrollment has plummeted by more than 530 students since 1993, nearly 100 of which came between this year and last. With space available at McIsaac and Ruth Betts, three elementary schools just aren't justified, and probably haven't been for some time. And as our community ages, there doesn't seem to be a huge influx of youngsters coming. Of course not everything about the Parkdale transition has been hunky dory. I can imagine how scary it was for these children to move to a new school, in some cases split apart from friends and teachers they've known for years. But that was six months ago. That's a long time when you're a kid. The Parkdalers have made new friends and become used to new teachers and a new routine. Let's suppose their old school could be fixed, even for as early as September... would we be doing the kids a service by uprooting them again? When I went to Parkdale a number of years ago, we had to move over to McIsaac for junior high and then to Hapnot Collegiate for high school. From there, many went onto university, yet another transition. Change Ð even the kind that seems scary at first Ð is part of life. Speaking of change (but of another sort), $2.5 million is a pretty fair chunk of it. That money could be spent a thousand different (and better) ways than providing a town of 6,000 with a fifth school. How about improving course access for students in remote communities? What about more money for vocational education, which gives so many young people a leg up when entering the workforce? For more conservative types, what about giving it back to the taxpayer? It's not easy to look at something to which we have an emotional attachment Ð like a school Ð in such plain terms. I can sympathize with any parents or children still disappointed over the Parkdale closure. I too believe this friendly little school was a genuine asset to our education system. But the simple truth is that it was time to move on. Whether or not that $2.5 million ends up in Flin Flon, I am glad to see it will be spent on something else. One More Thing... Hats off to the organizers and attendees of the recent benefit social for Andy Johnsgaard, the former resident seriously injured last year in a motorcycle accident. You did our community proud and proved this adage: "Once a Flin Flonner, always a Flin Flonner." Local Angle runs Fridays.
