Former school review chief agrees changes needed to hub school model

The man who helped shape the current rules for hub schools in Nova Scotia has some proposals that would dramatically change how they would be funded.

BobFowlercrisscrossed the province talking to NovaScotiansabout community school modelsthroughout the winter in 2014. His reportlater that summerformed the basis for the current criteria being used by school boards to evaluate hub schools.

NowFowlerhas some different ideas.One suggestion is thatboardstransferownership of some schools to communities and become tenants in those spaces, he said Friday..

And he's gladEducation MinisterKaren Casey wantsto take another look atthe current hub school model.

School boards as tenants

"We could see a school converted either to, I guess, the municipality [or]some sort of community partnership or corporation, where the school board wouldin fact become a tenant in that space," Fowler said.

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Municipalities, the province or even the federal government could becomepartners in hub schools, he said.

Communities, particularly smaller ones, doneed financial help to keepschools open,Fowlersaid.

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"[For] capital improvements in some cases but it may also be seed grants... to helpoperate the building," he suggested.

"Givingthem a three-year seed grant that allows them to nurture other community partners that may be able to pay rent and contribute to the school or the facility over a long period of time."

Casey open to changes

Fowler said Friday it'stime for a review and praisedCasey for being open to changes.

"I think that is encouraging to communities whomay still be contemplating a run at a hub school model," he said."I commend the department and the minister for taking another look."

Not one proposal for a hub school hasbeen accepted to date. Thelatest refusal wasthis week by the Tri-County Regional School Board which rejectedDigby Neck Consolidated School as a hub school.

Fowlersays thatpointsto the need for a review of the criteria.

He feels the concept is still worthwhile despite the repeated rejections.

"The hub school is really about the livelihood of a community, of a town or a geographic area," he said. "Schools are sort of the last bastion of what's there in a community."

Financial commitments unrealistic

Julie Woodman, principal of Digby Neck Consolidated School, is also happy to hear changes may be coming.

She sat on the committee that spent month and "hundreds ofhours"putting together the proposal rejected by the Tri-County School Board earlier this week.

"I can't say that I'm surprised about what the minister had to say, considering it is an election year," Woodman said.

But theproposal for DigbyNeckConsolidatedfell well short of the amount of money the board claimed was needed to cover the cost of running the school.

According to Woodman, the board originally set thatamount at $363,509.02. In June,it reduced thatestimate to$176,000.

'A fair shot'

"It was much less about halfbut still an unrealistic amount for a small community in Sandy Cove," she said.

The group's plan could only budget$70,000 a year to cover costs.

Woodman would like to see the rules changed so that community groups would cover some but not all the costs.

"We would just like to be given more of a fair shot to help cover those costs," she said.