In Support of Keeping our Children Together
This community has been facing significant changes since the first residents moved into the Highlands subdivision in2018. The population of the village has more than doubled since then. Long standing residents of the community are not only outnumbered, but their new neighbours are seen as different. They have migrated primarily from urban centers and sometimes bring urban expectations and sensitivities to their new community. From my perspective, the integration of the “new” and “old” residents has been fairly successful so far. Our new neighbours are embracing our community, joining clubs, starting new local businesses, contributing to our organizations and starting ones of their own. The unfounded fear that new residents were going to destroy our small-town way of life has been replaced with the understanding that they have come here to embrace it.
As a former Torontonian, I can attest to the importance of the local school as a vehicle to support this kind integration. Forty-two years ago, moving from downtown Toronto to a farm on Syer Line was a culture shock, as was leaving a corporate finance career to becoming a part-time employee and a full-time Mom. I was not alone, but it certainly felt like it.
My integration began in the nursery school on Hwy 7A in Cavan and blossomed in Millbrook South Cavan Public School where there was a universal and unifying appreciation of the fundamental issues of life. When my children began to attend elementary school, the junior grades were housed in the school “up the hill” in the building where the municipal offices are located. In Grade 4 they “graduated” to the school “down the hill”, feeling like they had grown up overnight.
Our village is preparing for another influx of new residents in the next few years. Subdivisions in the immediate area of the municipal office will create roughly 1200 new residences. The school board is considering how to divide students into two school buildings. One model divides Millbrook students into two separate K to 8 schools, the other one ties them together in a K to 3 and a 4 to 8 “cohort” model. This alternative would help bind new residents to this community by having all of our children learn and play together. An argument we heard when the board decided to close South Monaghan Public School in 2013 was that larger school populations provide educators with opportunities to provide broader programming. Let’s keep our kids together and find some exciting enrichment opportunities made possible by the concentration of students that the cohort model provides.
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