The time has come to start to form a new school board and division. It is very apparent that our present board (Prairie Valley School Division) is completely out of wack with you the taxpayer. More monies than ever are going into their pockets and not into educating the children. The monies they have spent on their own, for shops, offices and the hiring of more office workers and at the same time cutting schools, cutting teachers, taking busses away and trying to do things in a big way without any consultation from you the taxpayer. It is time to have a new beginning - a new start.

As of now students are driving to school on their own because they (P.V.S.D.) can not find bus drivers. P.V.S.D.’s way out is to get 72 passenger busses or maybe bigger with fewer drivers. This means every child has to get on the busses early, some at 7:15 or earlier. Our present P.V.S.D. board is on a one-way path that will lead not to only every other community taking the brunt, but P.V.S.D. will continue to expand until only a very minimum number of communities are left. Our Provincial government just turns its head and lets things work out on their own. Well - we will work things out for ourselves. If we do not stand up for ourselves, we are done.

I know when things happen we feel sorry for that community, but more often than not, we sit back and do nothing about it. Let’s get off our asses before it’s too late, before 90% (yes 90%) of our communities take the same hit.

Living near Enbridge right of way it was plain to see when there is a problem, protest can happen and work. An example is the protest by First Nations people vs. Enbridge. If they can do it and get results, so must we, not sit back, watch and wait to see what happens - we must make it happen. Our government brags that it has a 3 billion dollar surplus and don’t know what to do with it, while we in Glenavon have to raise money to transport our children to school, paying for busses, there is something wrong somewhere.

Education costs money and it is the right for every child to get an education in an environment they know and are friendly with. Put the money to the children, not to directors of education, chairperson, board of directors and constantly increasing out of classroom staff. These individuals need to justify their existence by dumping needless paper work on teachers who have better things to do, like teaching your children. We used to do this on a small scale, mostly on a voluntary basis and everything worked out well. As stated earlier the right of education is a right of every child. Putting children on a bus near 7:00 a.m. is hard on the health and welfare of students. Our children are our future and must be treated with a proper upbringing. Every community that can put 35 (thirty-five) children in school should have a school in that community, with at least grades K-6, providing the community wants it. With the new modern technology, computers, internet, etc., all small schools can be hooked up to it and have all the conveniences of the so-called hi-class education centers. Small schools lessen the chances of school yard bullying, which is very hard on students, young and old alike. It also broadens the experience of older students working with the younger students. In the past our local school reps have done everything possible in a politically correct manner and have been slammed down time after time with no answers. Is this a so-called democracy or is it some other - dictatorship.

One could go on forever, but for now, I hope you, the reader, give this some serious thought. I believe it is time to take a stand and we must all get together and take this further with more intense action.

Until we talk again,

Henry Mytopher