Andrew parent speaks out at EIPS meeting

BY JANA SEMENIUK

Village of Andrew parent, Kylie Rude, spoke as a delegate at the May 25 Elk Island Public School board meeting to try and have their decision reversed on where Andrew School students will be bussed once the Andrew Elementary School permanently closes on June 30.

The current arrangement will see five-yearold children riding the school bus for three hours each day to attend A.L Horton School in Vegreville instead of the closer and under-utilized Mundare School.

“My family and multiple others are being impacted in a very negative way,” said Rude during her presentation.

“We propose re-designating the northeast and southeast families to Mundare as one option. Of course, there are other options and anything that gets our kids to Mundare School is actually what we're looking for.

“So whatever that looks like, whatever is reasonable for the board to consider, that's what we're asking for.”

Rude further explained that her home is located 66 kilometers from Vegreville and 53 kilometers from Mundare. She said it is also important for her five-year-old daughter Brinley to be able to attend school with her friends, among other benefits to attending Mundare School.

“We want to go to a school that’s close and similar to Andrew School,” she said.

“The lower registration numbers (at Mundare School) would also benefit from the additional students.”

Mundare School was listed as the second most under-utilized school in all of EIPSs’ 43 schools in a report presented to the EIPS board in Jan.

Further in the report, Mundare School was described as experiencing ‘regular, significant enrolment decline. With a 19 per cent decrease in 2021-22, and a 16 per cent decrease in 2020-21’.

Meanwhile, Rude said in a later interview that EIPS gave parents the option of where to send their children for school after they made the decision to close Andrew School, but didn’t promise busing.

“I called right after that (May 4) meeting, because I was at the meeting when they made the decision. I called on my way home (so I could see) what the heck are the bus ride times going to be, and that's when I found out that they wouldn't even give us a bus to Mundare,” she said.

“They didn't even make it clear that you can choose that, but you have to get your kid to school by yourself.”

Rude said she feels helpless to plan the coming school year for her daughter.

“We’ve had a lot of stressful conversations here and a lot of tears,” she said. “(I) just feeling helpless, because I just want her to have a reasonable bus ride and to be with her friends, after all this very unfortunate stuff.”

Rude said she has not heard from EIPS on if or when a decision might be made on her request.

“It feels like they kind of treated us like numbers. Like we're only a few people, so it'll be okay. I don’t accept that because every number matters and every kid matters. Nobody should be treated that way,” she

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“I only received a thank you for the delegation. I don't even know if they're going to reconsider anything or if they even really heard me.”

A request for comment from EIPS communication director Laura McNabb was not received by press time.

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