About 200 Wild Rose and Robert Rundle students will have new homes this fall as their schools swap grades to solve a space and cash crunch.
St. Albert Public board trustees voted 4-0 (Trustee Cheryl Dumont absent) March 11 to turn Wild Rose Elementary into a Grade K-3 and Robert Rundle Elementary into a Grade 4-6 school as of this September. The shift follows several weeks of consultation at both schools.
The move is part of a bigger solution to a space and cash problem in the Grandin region, said superintendent Krimsen Sumners. Sir George Simpson’s French Immersion program is booming, and it’s running out of space for students. Wild Rose and Rundle, in contrast, have a student shortage, with about 450 kids split between them.
Provincial budget cuts mean the only way to keep Rundle and Wild Rose open as-is would be to turn almost every class into a split grade of 30-odd students, which would not give students the best education, Sumners said. Adding additional programs (such as languages or nature education) to Wild Rose would take money they didn’t have. They couldn’t close one of the schools, as neither could handle all 450 students. Instead, the plan is to move Wild Rose’s Grade 4-6 classes to Rundle and Rundle’s K-3 group to Wild Rose.
While many parents favoured the status quo, many also felt the proposed solution was the best given the circumstances, Sumner’s report to the board found. About 61 per cent of parents surveyed wanted this transition to happen this fall instead of in 2021.
The decision will affect about 100 students each at Robert Rundle and Wild Rose, Sumners said. Both schools will hold open houses and meet-and-greets this April 8, May 22 and June 23 so families can check out their new schools and teachers. In many cases, those will be the same teachers they have now, as many staff members have agreed to move with their students to their new schools. A free shuttle bus between the two schools will start this fall.
These schools will likely change grades again in two years as the space crunch at Simpson becomes more acute, Sumners said. Wild Rose would then become a K-4 school, and Rundle a joint Grade 5-9 campus with Simpson, with Simpson and Rundle students walking between the adjacent schools as needed.
While this would be a difficult transition for some families, Trustee Sheri Wright said administration had explored all the options, and that parents at an open house March 9 seemed to accept this solution.
“There could have been worse solutions than this.”
Robert Rundle parent Tenille Anthony said one of her daughters would have to move to Wild Rose and be separated from her sister at Rundle because of this change. Anthony said she was disappointed with the board’s consultation process on the change.
“I feel their mind was made up before they even told us about it.”
Call Wild Rose principal Derek Herman at 780-460-3737 or Robert Rundle principal Cory Albrecht at 780-459-4475 for questions on the change.
