Start Whistle Bend school planning, residents urge
“We don’t have a school yet, but we have a school site!”
“We don’t have a school yet, but we have a school site!”
That’s what proponents of a school for the Whistle Bend subdivision are promoting as they prepare for a literal banner event this Saturday.
At 4 p.m., residents will hold a banner up in front of a site they believe would be ideal for the area’s first school, and are inviting members of the public to help.
They plan to make this an annual event until a school is built in Whistle Bend. Currently, the territorial government has no immediate plans for one.
“We need everyone to show their support for our school; parents, children, grandparents, and interested citizens,” says a flyer promoting the event.
“We need people of all walks, sizes, colours, ethnicities, to be there for a 15-minute photo-op. Bring your shovels, picks, rakes, and wheelbarrows to hold while the photos are taken.
“The children can hold up the banner and show off their bicycles too.”
The backers for a school want to get the Department of Education started on planning one.
They also want the department to enable the election of a school council by designating Whistle Bend as an attendance area – a request the department has declined.
The subdivision is located within the attendance areas of Jack Hulland Elementary and Porter Creek Secondary Schools, and students from the area attend various other schools.
“This is our chance to show the department that we mean business,” the flyer says. We need a lot of people to fill a big photograph!
“Why should we have to wait for a long time for a school? Why should we have to bus the children all over the city?”
The flyer includes a Sept. 10 letter resident Brian Laird wrote to the department.
Whistle Bend currently has about 1,000 people and is growing rapidly, Laird pointed out.
“Recently, there has been discussion about future schools here, and a future civic centre,” Laird wrote.
“I had asked the Whistle Bend Community Association to support this question by sending a letter such as this. But they declined; apparently because some of their members felt a school was years in the future. I believe the planning needs to start soon.”
Conceptual planning for the land parcels is in place, he wrote. The area under consideration is parts of the space known as “Future Area A”.
Parents/residents are aware of the pending school council elections, and the looming Community Development Fund application deadline, Laird added.
Designating Whistle Bend as an attendance area “would include the entire Whistle Bend planning area to be built out over the next several years,” Laird wrote.
“Once designated, our residents could seek nomination for a school council position to represent our interests in the planning efforts.”
He added he would not seek election to a council.
“Time is somewhat short, but I feel it is sufficient to achieve the objective this fall,” Laird wrote.
“We would need your departmental and ministerial concurrence and action to accomplish this. If it cannot be done, then we may have to hold our own election, outside the Education Act.”
He received a Sept. 24 response from Lorraine Taillefer, the department’s assistant deputy minister, Schools and Student Services, who ruled out the creation of a school council.
“As we plan for the future needs for school buildings, we consider changing enrollment pressures across attendance areas to ensure our schools meet the educational needs of all Yukoners,” Taillefer wrote.
“At this time, we are not in a position to create a school council for Whistle Bend as there is currently no school in the community.”
The government is developing a long-term capital plan to determine schools it needs to build, replace, maintain or modernize, Taillefer noted.
“We consider many factors in this work, including increasing student enrolment and the safety and age of our school buildings,” she wrote.
“We are aware that the Whistle Bend community continues to grow. As we consider the student enrolment pressures in the Porter Creek and Whistle Bend areas, we can discuss how to involve the Whistle Bend community in planning to meet the community’s needs.
Comments (10)
Up 7 Down 1
Jack on Oct 9, 2018 at 8:59 am
Almost every school in Whitehorse is no more than 20 minutes away. With this scenario playing out, there are cases that could be made for a lot of remote areas. Look at busing options. Way cheaper. I agree with Pro Science Greenie the self entitled, gravy train riders, know no bounds. We need the taps in Ottawa shut down for just a bit, so the reality train can come into the station.
Up 10 Down 5
Yukon Watchdog on Oct 5, 2018 at 4:55 pm
Is the other story about the need for portable classrooms NOT ENOUGH to get this government thinking about the future now???? A school will be required in Whistlebend in less than ten years. Start planning now!
Up 10 Down 2
Seriously? on Oct 4, 2018 at 4:00 pm
@ BnR who said:
"Where was it written, or promised for that matter, that when you bought a lot there, there would be school as well????? "
It is literally written into the Master Plan, there are 2 locations for elementary schools and one high school. See page 4.
http://www.whitehorse.ca/home/showdocument?id=1455
Up 6 Down 2
Bandit on Oct 4, 2018 at 12:55 pm
I have lived in Whistlebend (phase 2) for 4 years. While I was researching and planning to build my home all of the CoW paperwork showed 3 school sites. It makes no difference to me as my kids are grown up and on their own, however the paperwork showing proposed schools could have influenced the decision for a family to build there and being able to raise your kids in the same community from K - 12. The information is all on the CoW website.
Up 8 Down 6
Ilove Parks on Oct 4, 2018 at 11:42 am
Whistle Bend is growing and is a perfect place for a school.
Up 17 Down 3
Ideasguy on Oct 3, 2018 at 8:35 pm
How about starting with a Francophone Secondary School in Whistlebend instead of further exacerbating the traffic in Riverdale? Sounds like a win win for both ends of town!
Up 16 Down 3
In the know.... on Oct 3, 2018 at 5:26 pm
FH Collins is the gravy train school; now Whistle Bend wants its own 'new' school? PCSS, where my kids go, has several empty classrooms. Instead of building more schools, let's utilize the ones we have. Let's get some of the overflowing FH student body to go to schools in their catchment area. What about a First Nations High school, an extension for older kids of Elijah Smith Elem?. If Whistle Bend were to build a school, let it be a school like Wood Street for Experiential programs, for Porter Creek students and that catchment area. Sick and tired of FH (and Wood St, an extension of FH) getting all of the resources... and now a new running track too. Let's have something for our kids.....
Up 16 Down 3
BnR on Oct 3, 2018 at 5:17 pm
Oh for god sakes.
Whats next? Their own multiplex? A new fire department?
Where was it written, or promised for that matter, that when you bought a lot there, there would be school as well?????
God, they'd build a school, then there would have to be a French language school.... It never ends.
Up 15 Down 4
Bad News on Oct 3, 2018 at 4:16 pm
Honorable intentions Mr Laird however there will never be a school in Whistle Bend.
When I bought/built in Copper Ridge 15 years ago it was a the same story, an Educational Reserve was there for a school to be built, it's still there, just a treed lot that will eventually fall to residential infill/densification. My kids, now teenagers have gone to downtown schools.
COW planners live in a bubble without contact with YG or the Department of Education; the folks who would plan, fund, build and operate a school. I can imagine the planners looking at the vast Whistle Bend space 10 year ago and dreaming up the 'pond' or dreaming up the 'town square' or dreaming up the commercial/business zone, or dreaming up a school. It all looks great on paper, but the reality is much harsher.
I've lived in Whistle Bend for more than 3 years now and I don't expect any kids will ever walk the hallways of a school there, I mean we don't even have bus service. It's a bedroom community and that's all it will ever be.
Up 8 Down 4
ProScience Greenie on Oct 3, 2018 at 3:18 pm
The addiction to the gravy train knows no bounds in CoW.