Francis area parents are fuming over a busing system that has their children changing buses on the highway, made necessary due to the closure of Francis Elementary School as of this fall, and over inadequacies of Sedley's school their children now have to attend.

The Prairie Valley School Division closed a number of rural schools in a decision handed down in May, including Francis and Lang Schools. Upset parents and residents have attempted to meet with the board on a number of occasions to change or modify their decision, but the board has said they would hold firm to their decision.

The latest slap in the face, as far as parents are concerned, is a bus system that has their children changing buses on Highway 35, then making a long route through the country before finally getting to school.

For elementary students, they are now going to the former high school in Sedley, and the high school students are now going to Vibank.

Besides the busing problems, the parents are unimpressed with the school their elementary-aged children are being forced to attend.

Describing the busing situation, parent Sheila Muhr said first the kids have to wait at the former school for the buses to arrive where there is no shelter, which will prove to be a problem when winter temperatures arrive.

"The bus with the town kids then goes seven miles north of Francis where they do the transfer on the highway. The town kids join the rural kids, and on Monday the rural kids had to wait quite a while for them to arrive," she said, noting the high school kids have to get on a different bus to go up to Vibank.

"The bus that's going north then continues north, and the bus with elementary students goes back two miles and goes west on a gravel road towards Sedley, where they still have to pick up the Sedley kids," said Muhr.

She added where the transfer is made, there is a small hill, and in winter there are often conditions of low visibility due to ice fog or blowing snow which will make this transfer point a dangerous place to be.

"I told the board members, they need to change it. They would not listen. It's just a big schmozzle out here," said Muhr. "They've put everyone at risk, and I don't think they had any of the children in mind. I have a child in Grade 3 and one in Kindergarten, and two more kids who will be entering the school system in three to five years. If they're not thinking of the kids now, what will be happening five years from now?"

For Prairie Valley's part, the issue needs to be dealt with by the transportation department in consultation with the parents, said Dawn Blaus, communications officer for the school division.

"We will monitor the situation, but the parents will have to work with the transportation department as opposed to going through the media," said Blaus.

In regard to the school itself, Muhr noted that Sedley School was set up as a high school, as it has been running for the past several years, therefore it has no playground equipment at all, and the school doesn't have a gym; instead, the school board has to rent use of the community-owned Sedley Hall where the gym is located. In Francis, the school already had its own gymnasium.

Muhr said the community had built the playground in Francis, and it would be unfair to have to fund-raise again for one at Sedley when it was the board who decided to move their children there. Meantime, her children and the others attending there have no playground whatsoever.

As a part of the Sedley School is closed, they have to cram nine grades into six classrooms, said Muhr, and the school's facilities, including its bathrooms, are set up for older, larger children, not for elementary-aged children.

"We could have a K-8 facility in a heartbeat with minimal cost and no upgrades at Francis. I've made clear to each board member there are people who are willing to move back to our school at no cost, but I don't think this board is listening to anything we have to say," said Muhr, who was formerly a member of the Francis school community council.

Blaus said the board is aware of the lack of a playground, and are making arrangements to have equipment set up. As far as using Sedley opposed to Francis, she said the board looked at such factors as the age of the building, the cost of upkeep and maintenance, building size and other factors.

The province-wide Save Our Schools group (SOS) has been active in the Prairie Valley School Division, helping the group take the board to court over busing concerns in other areas such as Glenavon. Media coordinator for SOS, Cheri Helstrom, notes three of their board members are from the Prairie Valley area, and the group has met with the board a number of times, as have the parents.

Helstrom noted the Lang area parents were more or less accepting of their school's closure, but the Francis area parents are very much upset by the closure.

"They made presentations to the board more than once and we have made presentations to them to encourage them to review their decision. They just don't want to listen, so as SOS we have been trying to help their cause," said Helstrom.

For Muhr's part, she said the intransigence of the Prairie Valley board on this closure, even in the face of the facts of the inadequacies of Sedley School, proves they did not perform due diligence on the matter before they went ahead and closed Francis School.

"I want to know if they were fully aware of what had to take place to accommodate these closures. Vibank is not ready for our students," said Muhr, pointing out that Vibank's school needs a $5.35 million upgrade to handle the high school students.

She had written a letter to Prairie Valley asking why they couldn't have had a moratorium on school closures like the Southeast Cornerstone board did, giving communities a year or so to fix any deficiencies or problems if their school happened to be considered not "viable" to continue.

Instead, she said, "they rushed into this thing. They have no idea what they're doing. This whole thing is flawed and nobody is willing to live up to it."

Asking where the evidence is that the board performed their due diligence, she commented, "I find the hardest part of this that no one's listening to us."

Blaus countered this saying the board has listened to their concerns each time they have come to the board. "Just because they didn't get the answer they were looking for doesn't mean they weren't listened to."