The free shuttle is also to be available for parents to get to parent-teacher conferences, school concerts and school sports events. Those are a lot of very big promises. If the school board makes good on all these proposals, the end result could indeed be an improved quality of education for inner-city students, and a new, broader spirit of community across central Edmonton neighbourhoods. It's never easy to close a school. It shouldn't be.
Schools are the souls of their communities.
That's especially true in poorer neighbourhoods, where schools provide fundamental social services to entire families. If the City Centre Project works, it may prove that tactical closures and consolidations can actually improve the quality of education, and the quality of community life, for inner-city neighbourhoods. If two high-profile school closures incidentally convince the province to cough up new money for new suburban schools, so much the better. But the real test of this plan will be if it works for city centre kids. Now, it's up to the board, its principals and its teachers to provide the proof.