Dauphin ministry hosts students after school burned
DAUPHIN, MB—A former Native residential school in Dauphin, now operating as a community outreach centre owned by the Church of Christ, is now once again alive with the sound of children's voices.
This time the former McKay Residential School, renamed Parkland Crossing, is temporary host to 270 students from Colonel Barker School. In February vandals set fire to the school. The fire was extinguished, but the building suffered serious smoke damage.
The next day Jack Sullivan, superintendent of the Mountainview School Division, called Jamie Harvey, administrator of Parkland Crossing, to inquire about the use of the Parkland's classroom wing while the smoke damage was cleaned up. The process was expected to take at least until the end of the school year in June.
The need was acute. The only other alternative was for the students be divided among all the other Dauphin public schools—a move that would disrupt their education.
But the space at Parkland Crossing was being used by community groups, including Mountainview High, an alternative high school, and for and youth employment skills classes.
So there were "painful discussions," according to Harvey as the school board and other groups tried to find a quick solution.
For the school board it was all or nothing. To keep the children together they needed all the space Parkland had to offer, including classrooms and a gymnasium.
Harvey says everything has turned out well. The school board is a good tenant, and the school programs have been able to continue with only a short interruption. Other groups, with the exception of the indoor playground, have relocated.
What used to be a relatively quiet campus is now a high traffic area as five buses deliver students from Barker school where they gather each morning. Then six rural bus routes from the area around Dauphin arrive.
Parkland Crossing's outreach efforts are now more visible to the wider community as Barker parents pick up their students or join in a parent teacher night while Parkland Crossing's outreach program holds meals for food bank recipients next door.
The rent paid by the board has enabled Parkland Crossing to move a year and a half ahead of its planned revenue for capital improvements. "It has been quite a blessing," Harvey says. Another benefit has been the electrical work and other renovations the school board has made to the classroom wing.
One change involved restricting access to the classroom wing from the part of Parkland Crossing now used for affordable housing. "We also had to delay the opening of a new men's dormitory since all our staff time was working on the transition to the school," says Harvey.
But Parkland Crossing has been able to continue most of its outreach activities, and space can still be rented out to the community on evenings and weekends.
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