(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Cam Lee

Star City Grade Closures

NESD Board votes to discontinue Grades 7 to 12 in Star City

Sep 20, 2024 | 5:00 PM

The North East School Division Board of Education has voted to discontinue Grades 7 through 12, starting in the fall of 2025.

The division made the decision based on recommendations from both the Star City School and the School Community Council, or SCC. Declining enrollment trends are a major factor for the decision.

Director of Education Stacy Lair told northeastNOW the board read through the extensive community consultation work undertaken by the SCC.

“The equitable opportunities in terms of academics and athletics and social experiences for the Grades 7 to 12 was a consideration to discontinue those grades, just because of extremely low numbers for them,” Lair explained.

Lair said for school athletics it has been difficult to put a team together with a lack of students available to play.

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Staff and volunteers had been combining teams, including making them co-ed. Lair said three on three basketball is a success in the division because of the hard work of staff and volunteers like these.

However, the lack of enrolment is a major issue in terms of access to high school programming and extracurricular activities. As of Sept. 5, there were just 44 students enrolled in the K-12 school, in line with expectations.

“There was triple grading (three grades in one room) and some difficulty especially in the high school programming to meet all of the needs without relying pretty extensively on some online options,” said Lair. “We know that learning is best when students can have some rich conversations with each other, and to have maybe one or two students per grade really makes that difficult.”

Lair said some families had already made the decision to send their high school-aged children to Melfort or Tisdale. The discussions around the future of Star City’s Grades 7 through 12 remains uncertain.

The division and school will make a transition plan for both what happens with students in Grades 7 through 12 next year, and to make the best K-6 school for Star City.

“Work will be around making sure we have the right kind of staffing and supports and everything that our elementary schools need in there, so it will be a small K-6 and we’re hoping that they’ll have a nice sustainable little school there for years to come.”

Lair said the NESD board didn’t have a school review in this case, as the community came forward to recommend the closure of Grades 7 to 12. She added the board looked through all of the community feedback – not all of which supported the closure – and made the decision to discontinue those grades.

Declining enrolment continues to be a concern across many rural areas. Lair said Star City has low numbers, even in the K-6 grades.

“At this point (the K-6 grades) are not under school review now, and so the K-6 will carry forward in the next year,” said Lair.

The lack of a school review means elementary school will remain open until at least until June 2026.

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK