Quote:
Originally Posted by mmmatt
As a proud "old west ender" I hope you are wrong...we have a lot more young families coming into this neighborhood as of late and I see the trend continuing with many houses being renovated each summer...maybe its just my perception but I find Hillcrest is one of the best schools in Moncton and I'm hoping my son gets to go there!!
If it truly is decrepit and totally underutilized I wont be a NIMBY because I know what needs to be done...but It will be a sad day for sure.
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I'm only offering my opinion as to which school on that list I think is most at risk. I like Hillcrest School and am familiar with it through the MKMBA, who use it for their youth basketball program on the weekends. The school has solid bones, but currently the student body is at less than 50% capacity and given the schools location right on St George, this property could be more easily sold than some.
Personally I'm a strong proponent of smaller neighbourhood schools, especially for the K-8 crowd. They help provide a sense of community for the neighbourhood and it's good for the kids to be able to walk to school. That's what I did when I was a kid. I don't think regionalization can be avoided by the time you reach high school though.
Politically the Anglophone East School Board has a problem. If they are seriously thinking of closing rural schools like Dorchester and Riverside, then for the sake of fairness they will also have to look at lesser utilized urban schools as well. Hillcrest however is a good school with a solid academic reputation, and it's one of those schools that I think will see increasing enrolment in the future as young families begin to move downtown again.
If you plan to fight any potential closure
mmmatt, I would suggest that you approach the issue in this way. Hillcrest is the neighbourhood school for the old west end. Just point out to the school board that this neighbourhood is right next to the downtown core and will likely see more and more young families with children moving in, especially as older residents die off and young parents become disenchanted with the suburban lifestyle. Hillcrest is probably at it's nadir right now in terms of enrolment. It will likely be higher in 5-10 years time. Try to convince the school board that this will be the case........
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