Field’s elementary school is closing at the end of the school year.
Residents are saddened by the loss of the Kindergarten to Grade 3 school, but say they understand why Rocky Mountain School District 6 is closing the school, which has only three students this year and one enrolled for next year.
Craig Chapman, chairman of the Field Community Council, said parents and residents of Field, home to about 200 people, tried to be creative in coming up with ways to keep the school open, but they could not overcome the changing demographics of the community.
“There’s a deep feeling of loss from the people who live in the town or have a connection to the town,” said Chapman, whose three children attended the elementary school in years past.
“We know the writing has been on the wall for some time because there’s been an average of eight students a year and there’s only one student for the 2016-17 school year. We know the school board didn’t really have a choice.”
The school, which was originally called the Field Superior School, was officially opened on Dec. 2, 1960, by then-B.C. Education Minister L.R. Peterson. The school officially closes July 1 this year.
Paul Carriere, superintendent of School District 6 Rocky Mountain, said the school board has been looking at closing the school since 2002, noting it escaped closure that year when seven other schools in the district did not.
He said the school district hosted a series of consultation sessions with the Field community last fall before passing a bylaw to close the school on Feb. 9.
“Since 2002, the school has been under 10 students that entire time. It was expected to have five this year, but two families moved away and then there was only three, so that re-started the conversation about closing it,” said Carriere.
“The community was wonderful. They expressed a desire to have a school, but also recognized the difficult position the school district was in in operating the school with that few students,” he added.
“We understand how difficult it is when a school needs to be closed for everyone to accept, but given the very small number of students we’ve had, this was the decision the board felt made sense.”
Carriere said there are presently 16 students in Grades 4 to 12 who currently ride the bus from Field to school in Golden, 58 kilometres away. Primary school students in the community will now be bused, too.
“Parents can also choose to put their kids in a distributed learning program, where there is teacher assistance from a distance with the school district, or home school their children,” said Carriere.
Patrick and Sophie Cais, who have lived in Field for nine years, have had two children go through the school in Field, including a son in Grade 3 who currently attends school there.
“It’s so sad to see the school closing because it’s just been so great for the kids,” said Patrick Cais.
“The school is about a minute walk from every house in Field and it has been great for us in terms of logistics,” he added.
“To have kids go to school with such small classes in the middle of the mountains and having nature all around has been a real blessing for us.”
That said, Cais and his wife understand the school board’s decision.
“We have to thank the school district for maintaining the school with such low numbers for so long,” he said.
“We are all aware about the population in Field right now and it’s something we saw coming, but at the same time we were strongly hoping it would remain open.”
Cais said it was getting harder for the kids to socially interact given the low enrolment.
“On the social side, it was getting harder for the kids because they don’t have as many kids to interact with,” he said. “My son was the only boy last year and sometimes he wanted to play soccer and other games that the girls did not want to play,” he added.
“All the teachers I talked to mentioned it’s better for the kids for the social interaction to go to a school with bigger classrooms.”
Rocky Mountain School District 6 owns the school building in Field, and currently rents out space to Parks Canada, Friends of Yoho National Park and the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation.
Carriere said all those tenants will stay.
“The school is open for other groups or societies who would have an opportunity to approach the district to lease space at the school,” he said.
Many residents of Field believe closure of the school is just one part of a bigger problem facing the hamlet, which Chapman said is changing from a community of families to a service service centre for visitors.
Chapman said the community council believes Parks Canada has played a big role in the demise of the school, noting they have done little to encourage people to stay and raise their families.
He said many Parks Canada decisions have affected the community, including big budget cuts in 2012 that included scaling back of winter hours at the visitor information centre, a failure to reinvest in Parks housing, and decisions in the 1990s that took away entry-level housing.
“They really work against us, they aggravate the situation and do very little to mitigate the problem,” said Chapman.
“We hear a lot of platitudes that they want Field to be a sustainable community, but when it comes to making decisions that help us, they are few and far between.”
The nearest full service town from Field is Golden, 58 km to the west. Field has a visitor centre, lodge, hostel and guesthouses, post office, gas station, restaurants and coffee shops, among other things.
The community also has a fire and rescue department.
“We operate as fire and ambulance and we respond to calls in Yoho to Golden and we even go to calls in Banff when they need us,” said Chapman. “We’re continually pushing to let Parks Canada know that you’re not going to have the population base to man these services soon.”
Chapman said the closure of Field’s elementary school goes even deeper than the loss of a place where families have their young children educated.
He said the annual Christmas concert is a much anticipated community event, and various fundraising activities, such as bottle drives, bring the community together.
“It’s a bonding place for the community. Losing our school is a very sad story,” he said.
“We’re going the way that we’re no longer that family-based community and it’s becoming more of a service centre for visitors. That’s the big punch.”
A spokesperson for Parks Canada was unavailable by press time.
