'What did we ever do?' Charlottetown parents angered by school report

Janna-LynneDurant'sphone has been ringing off the hook since the P.E.I. Public Schools Branch latest meeting.

The president of the St. Jean Elementary School Home and School Federation said Wednesday she's been hearing the same thing from parents that she's been feeling ever since she learned that her school may close as a result of draft recommendations on how to address underutilized or overcrowdedschools in the province unveiled at the branch's meeting on Tuesday.

• 5 school closures recommended in P.E.I. report on public schools

"First I was angry, why pick our school, why us, what did we ever do?" said Durant. "Then I was heartbroken because my child has to be moved to a new school and then I started wondering how is he going to adjust?"

Durant made the decision to send her son to St. Jean, having the choice between that schooland Spring Park Elementary.

"[St. Jean] is a great school it's more like a family to us," she said. "Everyone knows us.My girls are younger, every teacher knows them by name, my children love them...it's going to be quite the adjustment to our family if this goes through."

Parents across the river in the same boat

The report recommends a considerable amount of rezoning in the Charlottetown area which has also generated controversy.

The major impact would be on students from the Stratford schools and Donagh Intermediate who would attend Birchwood Intermediate instead of Stonepark to resolve overcrowding there.

That doesn't impress some parents in Stratford like Lorena Dunne, who says she thinksBirchwood is a great schoolbut not what she wants for her family.

"If I wanted my children to be in a school in Charlottetown, you know, in the downtown area, that's where we would have moved," she said. "But we wanted to be in a community, in a subdivision and a school with lots of green space that wasn't right in the city. That's our biggest concern."

Many parents in the Charlottetown schools said they will be using the 60 days of public consultations that are now underway to make the PSB see it their way.

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