Public Education in Edmonton

The message to EPSB from Edmonton communities might be summed up: “we cannot use conventional strategies in unconventional times”. We heard that in the communities’ view EPSB does not consider the welfare of children first when closing schools. We heard from groups who would offer to share costs but EPSB has not engaged with them. Parents want to know why there seems to be so many opportunties for EPSB to save money by better planning and being more efficient, but yet closing schools seems to be the first priority. We heard about an honours student that used to love to go to school, but after his school was closed using a similar process to this one is now failing and hates school. We heard about schools that are rated to have lots of extra space, but actually their enrolment is capped! We heard that EPSB priority was giving at risk kids new options but not what they need.

“How Big Should a School Be? …a more useful measure than cost per square foot…is the amount of space provided per student. And like most other measures of school facilities, that number is on the rise. School sites are larger these days, too—commonly twice as large as in the 1960s”