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Dusting off Gladstone

A dusted off Gladstone school could be the indefinite home for Prince George's elementary-age Montessori students fas the school district works through the next steps for their old location at Highglen, following Monday's fire.
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A dusted off Gladstone school could be the indefinite home for Prince George's elementary-age Montessori students fas the school district works through the next steps for their old location at Highglen, following Monday's fire.

"I would suggest we could be there a year and perhaps two years as we find out what's going to happen with the Highglen site and the Highglen building," school district superintendent Brian Pepper said Friday. "It will take some time, we have lots of discussions and we have lots of work to do before we're able to be more definitive there."

Whether the school district will continue to provide bus service from Highglen to Gladstone beyond the end of this school year is a question.

School district policy typically prohibits the service for choice schools but with Gladstone located 10 kilometres away in College Heights that proviso was relaxed for the rest of this school year.

"The busing will be provided until the end of June," Pepper said. "This allows families to make other arrangements for transporting their students to Gladstone for next year."

Prince George Montessori Education Society Tracy Summerville called Pepper's prediction "very realistic" and acknowledged that busing probably won't continue in September.

"That will be certainly a concern for people who live what they feel is far away from that school but that's sort of [an issue] in July when we sit down as an association and say to ourselves, 'OK, can we do anything about this?'" Summerville said.

About 300 parents and students from Highglen attended a meeting Thursday evening with school district officials. Following presentations from school district officials, Pepper said he spent about an hour of the 90-minute meeting answering questions.

Work to get Gladstone ready for classes on Monday was ongoing and Pepper described a hive of activity as installers, electricians, carpenters, movers, janitors and teachers converged on the building.

As for Highglen, Pepper said adjusters will be in next week to help determine whether the building can be renovated or must be rebuilt and to estimate the cost of damaged furniture and supplies.

Pioneered by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori, the Montessori approach emphasizes learning through self-directed activity at a pace in accordance to the student's developmental level.

Classrooms are noted for their puzzles and "manipulatives" and parents have already started up fundraising efforts and donation drives to replace the special learning materials lost in the fire.

Pepper has asked that the school's principal and staff be given two to three weeks to settle in before being asked to help tackle that issue and Summerville said that in the interim parents are trying to find a location away from the school where donations can be dropped off.

"It will be very difficult, I think, to just show up with stuff at the school," she said. "It's just going to be too much for our poor teachers, they've got other things to worry about."

Summerville, who noted Prince George is home to the only publicly-run Montessori school in B.C., called the school district's efforts to get Gladstone into shape in just a few days "phenomenal."

"At the end of the day, these people must not have slept," she said, noting there is even "a sign up outside that says Montessori."