Dear Leaders at the Calgary Board of Education,

Our community of Scenic Acres is writing to respond to the proposed changes to our high school designation under Scenario A, whereby we would be moved out of Robert Thirsk High School. We are aware that a scenario has not yet been chosen, however, we wish to express our significant concern about the possibility of being redesignated to Bowness High School. Whereas we are one group among many who are worried about changes to their children’s program and designation, we believe we are a unique group worth reconsidering, based on what we outline here.

The key factor making Scenic Acres students unique is the very small number of students.  The small cohorts, usually just over 20 kids per year, means that the redesignation of our students out of their current school group will have a much greater negative impact on our students compared to students in larger cohorts, all while providing a much smaller benefit to the CBE.

● The small size of the Scenic Acres Cohort has already forced our students to reintegrate once and form new social connections when entering Grade 5.
Scenic Acres students that move to Arbour Lake School are sprinkled amongst the numerous classes, and forced to develop new friendships through integration into much larger established cohorts in Grade 5.  There are typically several parents who elect not to do so, and shift to the Catholic school in our community to make what they feel is a smaller leap for their kids. There are often a few more who begin at Arbour Lake School and then transfer to the same Catholic school for the same reason. Creating a second reintegration into a new high school leaving behind the connections they worked so hard to form in Grade 5 to 9 seems excessively difficult, given that Scenic Acres is situated ideally to continue on with their established cohort and community into Robert Thirsk.

● The small number of students from Scenic Acres means our kids don’t have many connections that will move with them to Bowness.  
Due to the small size of the cohort, it is very common for students to develop their most significant relationships within the much larger groups of Arbour Lake students.  It is not uncommon for them to have very few remaining relationships with other Scenic Acres kids; there just isn’t enough of them.  Moving our community’s children is very different from moving a larger cohort where existing friendships and safety nets of connection move along with them.  They will be asked to start over again, at a critical time in their development.  

● Social Geography - Our students are part of the community centered around Crowfoot, and as such, have built strong social and community connections with kids in the same area.
Through Grades 5 to 9, strong bonds cement for our children at Arbour Lake School. These kids share school and community bonds through their common geographical location, and associated child-care, extra-curricular, and social activities. To then gather up this tiny group of Scenic Acres children out of the Arbour Lake School community and transplant them into the catchment of Bowness High School would be akin to each child moving to a new part of the city.

● Physical geography and practicality for our kids.
Robert Thirsk is significantly closer to our community than Bowness; while Bowness is at least a 10-minute drive away, our students could bike to Thirsk in less than 5 minutes.  This means that while independent transportation would be straightforward for Thirsk, it would be completely impractical and unsafe for Bowness.  This will present added financial and time concerns to our families, and prevent our students from making strong connections to their new school.  

● The small size of the Scenic Acres student group is ofminimal impact to either high school population
We understand that the CBE needs to make decisions that prevent over capacity of schools and equity within the system;however, it’s difficult to see how moving such a small group of students would make much difference to the capacity of any school.  There is likely as much transitory movement in and out of a high school community as there are total students from Scenic Acres entering the school in the run of a school year. A very small benefit to the CBE packs a huge punch to our kids.

We know that many hundreds of children will be displaced by either scenario. We do not take the position that our children are more important than any other group. Instead, we wish to call your attention to the uniqueness of our situation; our tiny size is nearly imperceptible to a high school population, either at Thirsk or Bowness.  Moving Scenic Acres students out of their larger community and their Middle School cohort would have many significant, far-reaching, and long-lasting negative impacts on them. As currently designed, this is also a long-term problem impacting students for years to come, not simply a short transition period of a few years.  We implore you to reconsider the cost/benefit analysis to moving Scenic Acres students to Bowness High School in Scenario A. We request your reconsideration of Scenic Acres in Scenario A, such that we are left alone in the changes that are being made to deal with problems far away from our community program. Please leave our children with their cohort and their community at Robert Thirsk High School, regardless of what decisions are made about scenarios for the CBE.  

Sincerely,

Concerned Parents of Scenic Acres Students