It was a long time coming - three years in fact - but the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Board of Education finally made a decision to close two elementary schools at its public meeting this evening.

The evening began with a tense annual organizational meeting, while about fifty parents and teachers from Mount Crescent Elementary gathered in the gallery waiting to learn the fate of their school.

By secret ballot, Board Chair Kathie Ward, Trustee Dave Rempel and Vice Chair Ken Clarkson were all nominated for the 2010 Board Chair position.

Rempel declined the nomination, explaining he declined the same nomination in the past because of the time commitment required.  Rempel then went on to state the dysfunction on the board is the “worst he has known” and he is considering resigning from his trustee position, a position he has held since 1996.

Next, current Chair Kathie Ward declined her nomination “in the public interest” and Ken Clarkson was acclaimed to the Chair.

It was a tense start to a tense meeting.

A motion by Trustee Stepan Vdovine to move the school closure vote to the beginning of the meeting was defeated when Ward and Rempel voted against.

Another motion to waive the by-laws and use ballots to vote on the closure motions was also defeated when Ward and Rempel voted no.

Both motions required unanimous approval.

Forty-five minutes into the meeting, the closure votes were finally on the agenda.

Most trustees came prepared with written statements - some of the wording was remarkably similar.

Chair Ken Clarkson and Vice Chair Eleanor Palis both spoke about “right versus right decisions” and insisted there is no “wrong” decision about these particular school closures.

Several trustees blamed government and “underfunding of public education”.

Trustee Rempel spoke at length about the potentially positive aspects of change.

The vote to close Riverside Elementary was unanimous with little discussion of the existing school culture or the specific future of its remaining students.  At least two trustees (Vdovine then and Huber later) acknowledged several prior board decisions, including the decision to close down the French Immersion program, had already sealed the fate of Riverside.

When the recommendations around Mount Crescent Elementary came to the table, Trustee Susan Carr read out a statement.  She said she felt she could make a fair decision but that legal counsel advised she would be in a position of conflict - Carr has a child attending Mount Crescent Elementary.  Carr removed herself from the discussion and vote.  (Later on in the meeting Trustee Vdovine took the time to acknowledge Carr’s advocacy at the board table on behalf of Mount Crescent parents.)

During discussion of the motion to close Mount Crescent Elementary, trustees again read out statements and spoke of the difficulty of the decision.  Trustees then voted to close the school in a split five to one decision.  Finally, trustees proposed and passed an additional motion to provide a crossing guard for Mount Crescent students who choose to attend Glenwood Elementary next year.

Trustee Mike Huber, who did not speak to the motion to close Riverside Elementary, lectured the board about process during the debate about Mount Crescent. “I am disappointed in my board”, he said.  To applause he twice stated he would not vote to close Mount Crescent because, “the board only looked at two schools, not the whole district.”

Huber made passing reference to the superiority of the 2006/07 process, explaining the board considered the entire district at that time.

It was a curious statement given that tonight’s decision really was the culmination of the process that began in 2006 with the Cornerstone consultants report.

In the fall of 2007, the previous Board of Education received staff recommendations to close Riverside Elementary, Mount Crescent Elementary and Webster’s Corners Elementary following less than two months of consultation around the findings of the Cornerstone consultants.   Parents successfully argued the process required more time and school trustees in office at the time voted to extend the process and remove Webster’s Corners from consideration.

However, 2008 was an election year and no one was particularly surprised the issue of school closures lay fallow.

In the fall of 2008, newly elected trustees Huber, Carr, Clarkson and Palis joined incumbent trustees Vdovine, Ward and Rempel.

In the meantime, the board also hired it’s third superintendent in as many years and replaced the secretary treasurer.

It is not surprising the school closure process stalled several times but it left parents, staff and students at the two named schools in agonizing limbo.

Tonight’s decision to close both schools brings to an end a process that dragged on far too long.