Mayor Dave is on his way out. Long live the new mayor.
He or she will need to face a new upstart: City core advocates demanding a voice. For years, our mayor appealed to suburban voters, tripping up only to vote for two $50-million footbridges.
Now those footbridges may be the key to saving inner city schools — and cement the city’s obligation to keep school closures from decimating neighbourhoods.
The new mayor will face established communities that are affluent and organized. Pay close attention to the parents of St. Angela’s elementary.
Recently slated for closure, the inner city Catholic school is becoming a “workplace school.”
The plan is to draw more students from parents who commute downtown. The pitch? Drop off kids on the way to work, and pick them up from daycare after.
In a nice feat of marketing, St. Angela’s parents call it “family time.”
St. Angela’s parents pulled off the near impossible: They got a school board to back off closure and instead back an innovative idea.
How did they do it? It took hundreds of hours. Sure, lots of parents have rallied. But not like these parents.
They used the Freedom of Information Act to get hundreds of pages of documents showing the Catholic school board hadn’t explored alternatives for St. Angela’s — as it said it had. Parents then talked with each school trustee.
And, remarkably, parents worked through city advocates of urban renewal: Aldermen Druh Farrell and Joe Ceci.
Ceci said: “Schools are absolutely vital. People want their children to be able to walk to schools, and I don’t want to lose that.” Importantly, he noted, schools form centres of community support and social cohesion.
And that footbridge near St. Angela’s? Chris Ollenberger, CEO of Calgary Municipal Land Corp, who is overseeing the St. Patrick’s Bridge and adjacent East Village redevelopment supported St. Angela’s. “Families need schools. The proximity of St. Angela to this redevelopment offers a natural fit for both our community and this historic school,” he said.
Parents bought each kid a yellow T-shirt and staged visuals perfect for photos and TV.
But most importantly, they proved the school was important community infrastructure.
Next week, aldermen Ceci and Farrell will meet with school board representatives to talk about city/school board collaboration. It’s a crucial step.
School boards shouldn’t have to go it alone.
– Janice Paskey teaches at Mount Royal University and is a volunteer with Westwood Hockey.
