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Last updateFri, 11 Oct 2024 4pm

Golden Hills School Division confirms Carbon High School to remain open

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    Following a consultation with parents of Grades 9-11 Carbon School students (next year’s high school group) on Thursday May 6, the Golden Hill School Division (GHSD) has confirmed the school will remain open.
    “There was never a motion to close it,” clarified board member, division contact Shirley Buyer, adding “as long as we don’t get people pulling their kids from the school, it will remain open.”
    The consultation served to discuss the enrolment challenges and to invite the school council to provide input on the long term sustainability of the high school.
    Ron Kenworthy, chair of the GHSD, told The Mail the board looked at different schools in December/January to determine if there were any sustainability problems in them.
    “It became apparent afterward that the Carbon School was having decreasing enrolment in their High School, that a lot of kids were going to different schools in the area other than Carbon.
    We thought at that time we should start a conversation with the parents to find out how they are feeling about it because if they were saying ‘ok the school is getting too small’, we’d have needed to do something right now, so we needed to know that,” said Kenworthy.
    “It wasn’t so much about the funding, although it is always difficult to maintain a school with low enrolment, but more importantly, it was how the parents felt about the program being offered. We wanted to speak to the parents whose children are the most affected right now to see if they wanted something done right now.”
    Kenworthy said parents’ views were mixed, but mostly indicating a level of satisfaction with the program.
    He also told The Mail there would be ongoing discussions in the coming year with the school council to ensure the situation was reviewed regularly.
    “We want to start the dialogue with the parents,” said Kenworthy. “The indications we have is that things are not all that well, when you look at the results for example.”
    Jeannette Giesbrecht, Carbon resident with children attending the Carbon School believes they will be facing the same battle next year.
    “I am going to start emailing our MLAs…We need to do something, we can’t lose it next year either.”
    Giesbrecht told The Mail that parents would be having  another meeting to decide what the next step is going to be, adding “I think what we need to do is to start looking at these kids who are going to other schools to try and encourage them to come back because enrolment is an issue.”
    When questioned about how the school board would deal with funding adjustments, Buyer said the school may suffer teachers’ cut so they may have to adjust the timetables.
    She also stressed that people needed to realize these problems were not due to the local boards but government’s decisions.
   

Tim Hus to release CD at Old Grouch's

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    The Old Grouch's Restaurant has a reputation for down home cooking and down home music.
    It was not long ago that recording artist Jaydee Bixby as a youngster would turn up and belt out a tune, and now Alberta recording artist Tim Hus will be releasing his most recent CD at the restaurant Friday, June 25.
    Hus has played in the valley a number of times including at the East Coulee Spring Festival. He is releasing his fifth album, the second on the famous Stony Plain records, founded by Holger Petersen.
    “We have been doing CD release concerts all over the province, but I did want to do one in Drumheller,” said Hus.
    While he has never played at The Old Grouch’s before, he met Fran Nargang at previous concerts, and she extended an invitation to him.
    “I know it is not that big, but I think we could fill it up and have a good one there,” said Hus.
    He is proud of his new release Hockeytown, an album packed with Canadian content.
    “It has all kinds of Canadian cowboy country songs, and the themes go from coast to coast, everything from fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, to hunting gophers on the prairies, to steel mills of Ontario, to hunting the Sasquatch in the mountains of British Columbia,” said Hus. “I called it Hockeytown because that it has a common thread, every town in Canada is a hockeytown.”
    He said he has the stamp of approval from one of the biggest legends in Canadian music. Last summer he completed a six week tour with the one and only Stompin’ Tom Connors. He wrote much of the material for this album while on tour.
    “We’re good friends now, and it was great because every night he would stand up on stage and give me really good plugs like, ‘For 30 years I have been looking for a guy that was proud to write songs about our country, and I would sure like to pass the torch out west to Tim Hus,’” said Hus. “He’s kind of taken me under his wing, and I think we are going to tour western Canada this summer.”
    Before that he will be in Drumheller. He travels with a three-piece band.
    “This way you can get a really close up and personal show at the Old Grouch's,” said Hus.

Morgan Jayne Project continues shipping formula

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    The Morgan Jayne Project continues its service as it just shipped 306 cans of infant formula to the Roatan at a time when it is needed most.
    The original goal of the program, when initiated by Fred Makowecki, was to supply infant formula to children at risk of contracting HIV and AIDS from their mothers through breast milk. It has been successful in saving hundreds of babies. While the project has expanded to help construct the Morgan Jayne Infant Care Centre and provide Christmas wishes to hundreds of children, its bread and butter remains providing formula.
 Volunteers packed up the formula with help of the local post office, and on Friday June 4, they were shipped out. The 306 cans have a value of about $8,000. Local donors came up with funds to ship the cans.
    Makowecki said the need in the Roatan has been growing. Because of the global recession the tourism industry on the island, which employs many balancing on the edge of poverty, has come to a stand still. Political upheaval has also taken a toll. Recently the Morgan Jayne Infant Care Centre saw a child die from starvation mere moments after birth.
    Makowecki is grateful for the support, including the post office. He explains the project was able to cut down its freight charges by a third simply by the help it received from the post office to package the shipment efficiently.
    The shipment is destined for Florida, where it will be held before it is sent to Roatan.

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