Three representatives from the community met with the Horizon School Division board during the afternoon Jan. 30 and presented their plan to keep the school open and attract younger families to the area.
One of those in attendance was Les Saelhof who is on the SOS committee and the Young economic development committee. Saelhof said the presentation went really well and they got a lot of positive feedback from the board, “which resulted in the school board voting 13-0 to rescind the motion to review our school.”
The board of education at its Jan. 31 meeting passed a motion to discontinue the school review process for McClellan School in Young.
Last September a motion was passed at the division’s board meeting to review the viability of McClellan School in Young. The division said the board considered putting Young under review in 2010 but that motion was defeated. After being placed under review this time around, Saelhof and others formed a school review committee and got the community involved.
“We have started several projects to address the problems we have identified as the main issue in why our community has not grown, and that is the available housing.”
A housing project is off and running with one house being put up for sale last week. Another house is being brought in to be put up for sale this month. “That is probably the biggest project that will have the most impact in the short term as far as school enrollment and growth in the community.”
Saelhof said that initiative has provided excitement in Young and those investing in the project are optimistic about the potential. However, he said there is still a lot of work to be done. “The school board has granted us some time with our project. We haven’t solved the problem, we have just been given some time to do our work.”
The committee member said the village has committed all of its resources behind growing the community, including a new subdivision that has been approved called Century Street. “It is a huge financial commitment from the village to help alleviate the problem of no lots for developers.”
Along with that, Saelhof said the people of the community have stepped up with investments for the Young housing projects. “Consider in two short months raising $300,000 of basically venture capital to invest in growing your community. That is amazing and all of that money came in before this announcement that our school wasn’t going to be closed . . . I guess it really proved to the Horizon school board that our community is going to step up (and) invest all the resources necessary to at least get the chance for our school to stay open.”
Saelhof said there was no specific timeline laid out from the division board but rather “the school division has simply told us that they would stay in consultation with us and see how things are going. There is no set three or five year period, they simply voted to approve a motion to discontinue any further discussion on school closure at this time . . . we assume we will have a period of time that will allow us to grow the community and I guess we will just see how that goes.”
The approach taken by the SOS committee was not to point fingers or lay blame on others but instead to use the announcement as a jump start for the community to get to work. “We recognized that there is a problem here. We respected the Horizon school board’s position. It is a very difficult position for the Horizon school board to be in. They know the impact on these communities when they review a school.
“It is a great relief for everyone involved. At the same time, we have to keep that passion and commitment alive as we go forward here.”
Saelhof was pleased with the support by residents and businesses from Young. “From the time we had the public meeting in November, the community has gotten behind all the ideas that we have brought forward from the Growing Young economic development committee and the SOS committee.”
As a result, Saelhof hopes that, through the projects being undertaken in the village, enrollment at McClellan School will go up.
“We are excited. The potential for growth in our community and the kind of amenities we can offer young families, it is a great place to raise a family.”
Young was not the only community to receive good news last week as the board also passed a motion to discontinue the school review process for Bulyea. In a release, the division said the process for that school and McClellan was discontinued as a result.
As for Nokomis’ school, the board identified that school as meeting the criteria for a school review. The motion to keep the school under review said that the board “is satisfied that the review demonstrated projected low enrolment, budgetary constraints and difficulties meeting program needs within the existing constraints; Therefore, that the Board consider the discontinuance of one or more grades up to and including the complete closure of Nokomis School with an effective date of discontinuance or closure of Aug. 1, 2012.”
A public meeting of electors for Nokomis’ school will be held Mar. 27 in the gymnasium and the division board will continue to receive submissions regarding that issue until the board meeting in April.
At that meeting, the board will consider the discontinuance of one or more grades up to and including the complete closure of Nokomis School....

» Subscribe now to read more