Delegation from Canyon and Matthew Halton Schools appears before Town and MD Councils

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Canyon School Principal Carole Goodreau, Assistant Principal Chad Kuzyk, and Matthew Halton School Principal Sandy Treit appeared before Town and MD Councils this week to outline some of the challenges the schools face and to introduce themselves to council. The quotes below are from their presentation to Town Council.

"We just want you to know who we are and what we're about, we're not asking for anything," said Goodreau in her preamble.


"At some point we're going to have to look at revamping education.  It has certainly changed.  The things that we're asked to do now as teachers is a lot more involved than it was years and years ago."

Mrs. Goodreau said Canyon School had 296 elementary students in addition to children attending the pre-school.  She said the the attendance numbers were decreasing every year, a situation Treit echoed.  Treit said Matthew Halton had 345 students last year, 339 this year, and next year's enrollment was expected to drop by 10 or 12 students.  "Our class sizes are getting smaller," said Treit.  "I'm not sure where this is going." She invited councillors to come and see the school if they hadn't in a while, saying the new shop was well worth a visit.  Sports Performance has been added as a new elective course this year.

According to Goodreau and Treit there were 17.65 teachers at both schools, about 14 support staff at Canyon School, and about 45 altogether.

Treit said Matthew Halton had a very active Student's Council, lots of school spirit, and good Diploma Exam results.

Goodreau said she would like to see a change away from the age-grouping in the future.  She also said technology was changing how schools functioned.  Treit mentioned video-conferencing, which is allowing 8 local students to take Math 31, which she said was beyond the Matthew Halton budget to offer locally otherwise.