Mandy Fillmore has lived in Grand Bay-Westfield all her life and now she’s raising her three children here. One child attends Grand Bay Primary School while another goes to  Inglewood Elementary. Her youngest child is starting school next year. Fillmore wants to see more opportunities for her kids and all children in the community. “I’d like to see more for them in the schools,” she says. “I’d like them to have the same opportunities that kids in Rothesay and Quispamsis and even in the city have for extra curricular programs and facilities, things like  libraries, gyms, access centres. Right now we don’t have it.” While she likes the idea of a small school she knows a larger, newer building could offer the programs that aren’t available in the old Grand Bay Schools. Fillmore joined others at the recent District 8 Education Council Town Hall Meeting, calling for a new school in Grand Bay-Westfield.

Mayor Grace Losier told the audience of about 35 parents and school officials in the auditorium of River Valley Middle School how Grand Bay Primary and Inglewood had changed very little since the days when she attended those schools. She says the town is growing with a new collector road being built and housing developments in the works and the time to start asking the government for a new school is now. Losier says the educational opportunities afforded children attending these old schools don’t mirror those being offered in the newer Westfield Elementary and the lack of a proper gym at Inglewood and Grand Bay means the schools cannot even meet the prescribed curriculum of the Department of Education. “The community has to get behind it and want it,” says Losier. “There’s a good course of voices here and a real willingness to work toward this. Our minister (Jack Keir) is supportive. He understands there is a disadvantaged community here and we want all our kids to be afforded the same opportunities.”

This is the first of a series of town hall meeting being planned by the District 8 Education Council. While other issues were discussed, like special needs students, trades in the schools and high school enrolment, the need for a new GBW school was the main topic of the night. Some suggested a new school facility could become more of a community cultural centre, similar to the Centre Scolaire-Communautaire Samuel-de-Champlain building for the French community in Saint John. District 8 Education Council Chair, Rob Fowler agreed there is a need for a new school in Grand Bay-Westfield. “We have substantial growth coming to the area and we have very old, antiquated buildings with very little if any recreational facilities,”says Fowler. “Grand Bay Primary and Inglewood particularly, I wouldn’t call them gymnasiums that they have. They are just extra large classrooms. You can’t hold any type of physical activity of any significance in those kind of facilities. It’s not a reasonable expectation for kids to grow up in that kind of environment when there are much better facilities everywhere else.” Fowler says a new school building in the town would mean the closure of Grand Bay Primary, Inglewood and possibly Morna Heights School. He says even if we got the go-ahead today, a new building is still years away. He says the next step is to form a local steering committee and submit the request to Fredericton. “I think the government would have a hard time turning it down on the merits of the proposal,” he says. “When you look at the opportunity to close down three antiquated, run down, older buildings into one brand new facility with a whole lot of community support, I wouldn’t want to be one of the guys to say no.”

Mandy Fillmore has lived in Grand Bay-Westfield all her life and now she’s raising her three children here. One child attends Grand Bay Primary School while another goes to  Inglewood Elementary. Her youngest child is starting school next year. Fillmore wants to see more opportunities for her kids and all children in the community. “I’d like to see more for them in the schools,” she says. “I’d like them to have the same opportunities that kids in Rothesay and Quispamsis and even in the city have for extra curricular programs and facilities, things like  libraries, gyms, access centres. Right now we don’t have it.” While she likes the idea of a small school she knows a larger, newer building could offer the programs that aren’t available in the old Grand Bay Schools. Fillmore joined others at the recent District 8 Education Council Town Hall Meeting, calling for a new school in Grand Bay-Westfield.

Mayor Grace Losier told the audience of about 35 parents and school officials in the auditorium of River Valley Middle School how Grand Bay Primary and Inglewood had changed very little since the days when she attended those schools. She says the town is growing with a new collector road being built and housing developments in the works and the time to start asking the government for a new school is now. Losier says the educational opportunities afforded children attending these old schools don’t mirror those being offered in the newer Westfield Elementary and the lack of a proper gym at Inglewood and Grand Bay means the schools cannot even meet the prescribed curriculum of the Department of Education. “The community has to get behind it and want it,” says Losier. “There’s a good course of voices here and a real willingness to work toward this. Our minister (Jack Keir) is supportive. He understands there is a disadvantaged community here and we want all our kids to be afforded the same opportunities.”

This is the first of a series of town hall meeting being planned by the District 8 Education Council. While other issues were discussed, like special needs students, trades in the schools and high school enrolment, the need for a new GBW school was the main topic of the night. Some suggested a new school facility could become more of a community cultural centre, similar to the Centre Scolaire-Communautaire Samuel-de-Champlain building for the French community in Saint John. District 8 Education Council Chair, Rob Fowler agreed there is a need for a new school in Grand Bay-Westfield. “We have substantial growth coming to the area and we have very old, antiquated buildings with very little if any recreational facilities,”says Fowler. “Grand Bay Primary and Inglewood particularly, I wouldn’t call them gymnasiums that they have. They are just extra large classrooms. You can’t hold any type of physical activity of any significance in those kind of facilities. It’s not a reasonable expectation for kids to grow up in that kind of environment when there are much better facilities everywhere else.” Fowler says a new school building in the town would mean the closure of Grand Bay Primary, Inglewood and possibly Morna Heights School. He says even if we got the go-ahead today, a new building is still years away. He says the next step is to form a local steering committee and submit the request to Fredericton. “I think the government would have a hard time turning it down on the merits of the proposal,” he says. “When you look at the opportunity to close down three antiquated, run down, older buildings into one brand new facility with a whole lot of community support, I wouldn’t want to be one of the guys to say no.”