0 202 TURE UL ION C I T R EC ! AG S E D 2N NSID I
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Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Vol. 43, No. 13
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BRSD votes to close Holden School trustees also vote to consolidate Grades K through 9 at Ryley, relocate Ryley high school students, close Hardisty School Leslie Cholowsky Staff Reporter
Battle River School Division Board trustees voted on Thursday, March 19, on three motions for closure; affecting Round Hill School, Ryley and Holden Schools, and Allan Johnstone School. The final result of the vote was for Round Hill School to remain open; for Ryley and Holden to consolidate into one school with Grades K through 9, closing the High School, and moving everything into the Ryley site, closing Holden School; and for Allan Johnstone School in Hardisty to close, eff. June 30. Since the division office was closed to the public due to the pandemic, the meeting was streamed live via YouTube. Beaver County Reeve Jim Kallal says, “As you can imagine, Beaver County Council was disappointed with the decision of the School closure in Holden and the consolidation with Ryley.” Trustees had an opportunity to speak briefly prior to each vote, some chose to address each decision separately, while others indicated a desire to speak once to all three votes. Laurie Skori from Flagstaff County East said, “This decision is that of the Board of Trustees and ours alone,” adding that it was administration’s job to provide the information necessary to make a decision, and that in her eyes, administration works tirelessly for students and staff in the division. Beaver East trustee Zsuzsanna Hemperger spoke before the Round Hill vote. She thanked the public for all the presentations submitted to the board, and division staff for all their work, as well as her fellow trustees. “These are hard decisions; we all have lost sleep over them.” She implored parents, students, and communities to believe in the division, and to keep their children in BRSD schools. “I ask you to trust us; to have faith in local teachers and their abilities in being able to handle what comes next, and I’m asking you to do the same.” Kendall Severson, Trustee for Camrose County South said, “The decisions that we have to make today are huge and will impact many families. I myself have not been sleeping well as this weighs heavily on me. I would like to thank all the communities for their creative presentations and the time that has been invested into creative new ways to educate kids. “As the longest-serving member on this board, I have had to take part in several of these closure meetings over the years and none are ever easy. “Regardless of the way votes go today, our students
are resilient, and will continue to have success in the years ahead.” Jeff Kimball, from Flagstaff County West, said his thoughts echo those of his fellow trustees, thanking all communities for their presentations; in their uniting and bringing these communities to the forefront in showing their solidarity. “None of this is easy, by no means, whatever decision is made today, there will always be consequences to that. I look at our mission statement as a school board/division, we are supposed to work in cooperation with our communities to support students for long learning and contributing member of society.” Karen Belich, Camrose County North, said, “We are all aware of the declining number of students in communities all across Alberta and Canada.” She spoke about how she had reviewed all the information brought forward from both the division and the community presentations, as well as results of the Thought Exchange survey done by the division, and all other correspondence regarding the motions. “I reviewed all of it thoroughly and in doing so there have been many things to consider. These are extremely difficult decisions to make but I do believe that it is our responsibility to do so.” Board Chair Norm Erickson praised all the communities for their positive presentations. “Our mandate in the BRSD is to make sure all students are giving the opportunities to receive a complete
education and at the same time be fiscally responsible.” Erickson indicated that he would be basing his decision on what he thinks is best for all BRSD students. Erickson said he looked at programming, financing, utilization rates, and bus travel times, taking all into consideration. “I’m going to be basing my decisions, for the most part, on what I believe is the most important thing for our students, and that is going to turn out to be front line workers. I believe that education comes from the people in front of the students, and that is more important to me as a person. “They are tough decisions. We know the fiscal realities of the next three years and it’s a tough, tough, tough decision.” The motion to close Round Hill School was defeated, it will remain open. As the next motion was being introduced, to relocate Grades 10 through 12 at Ryley School, and the consolidation of Ryley and Holden School at one school site, serving Kindergarten through Grade 9, Hemperger asked for an amendment to the motion, asking to make Ryley School to have K through Grade 12. Clarification had her confirm that she was asking for Ryley students from K to 12 be consolidated with Holden School, leaving the high school open. Skori noted that a high school program with 30 kids would be “extremely hard to deliver,” saying she was See BRSD P10
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2020
Mercury LEADER The Tofield
THE LAMONT
From football to farming, Kevin Lefsrud’s newest venture has culinary enthusiasts sitting up to take notice Leslie Cholowsky Viking born and raised, Kevin Lefsrud grew up on the family’s centennial farm, where they’ve been for the past 117 years, going on to play football in the CFL for seven seasons, with the Edmonton Eskimos and Montreal Alouettes, and winning three Grey Cups. When his football career ended with two concussions in a five-week period, Lefsrud, who had been farming in the football off season, returned to the farm full time. Lefsrud says, “I lost about a year and a half of memories from that period immediately afterwards,” and says he is losing more memories all the time. Kevin says his wife, Kyla, has helped him to regain his overall health, and helps him every day maintain his mental health today. “She points out what I need, she helps me out more than anything.”
He always enjoyed splitting his time between the farm and football for the challenges each brought. Now his focus between farming and a new family venture producing honey liquor products is helping him keep his brain occupied. Kevin, Kyla, and sister Lynette now operate Section 35 Farm Distillery, with Kevin taking the lead role in production and development. The name of the company is a throwback to their pioneering ancestors who settled in the Viking area in 1903, a tribute to the Lefsrud homestead on Section 35. Lynette says, “Section 35 is very special to me - it is a way for me to be in business with my family and to stay connected to our roots as fourthgeneration Albertans – farmers and business people. “I love that I get to work with my brother and promote Alberta-made products at the same time.” At present the company has two
very popular products: Wildflower is a vodka-like liquor, sitting at 36 per cent alcohol by volume, made only from honey distillate and water, and Bad Teacher, a blend of honey distillate, apple juice, vanilla, brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. About five or six years ago, neighbours Mike and Dustin Yaremcio approached him about putting some bee hives on some of his land. “Bees and canola go together, so I agreed immediately,” he says. Rent came in the form of honey, which soon started to pile up. “There’s only so much honey and toast you can eat.” He says it was around that point that he started fooling around with meads and honey wines with Mike and Dustin. “We weren’t very good at that,” he said. An unfortunate byproduct of these products was awful hangovers, too, taste testers reported. The trio started looking at other See LEFSRUD Page 9
Three-time Grey Cup winner and fourth generation farmer in the Viking area, Kevin Lefsrud, along with wife Kyla and sister Lynette, has started Section 35 Farm Distillery.
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