The first day of school can be tricky for any student to navigate, but for Sarah McKenzie’s neurodivergent son, starting the school year at a new school is even more difficult.
“It’s a little overwhelming for him but the teachers are really trying to incorporate him into the group, and I can see he’s trying,” said McKenzie. “I do think the year at the All Boys really did help him.”
The Calgary Board of Education’s (CBE) All Boys program at Sir James Lougheed School was created with an emphasis on leadership and athletics, but was known among parents for its specialized supports, especially for neurodivergent learners.
McKenzie’s son only attended the program for one year but says that time had a significant impact on the young learner.
“Within in the first two months, (he) excelled in a way I’ve never seen him excel before,” said McKenzie.
“He was actually doing work in his books, he was making friends for the first time, so it was a program that meant so much to me.”
That program closed in June, forcing the students who found their place in that community to start again at schools across the city. It was a closure parents fought, but ultimately accepted, when they were told it was to turn the building into an elementary school to help elevate enrolment pressure on other CBE classrooms.
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The school has capacity for 300 students and the All Boys program only had about 30 enrolled. But when kids returned to the classroom in September, it wasn’t elementary students walking through the school’s halls.
“Apparently, there’s a lot of red tape as to why they couldn’t open it immediately as a school,” said McKenzie.
“So, now we’re getting this information out but only after we get to the point of having to escalate and we don’t understand why they couldn’t have just told us that.”
The CBE has leased the Sir James Lougheed School to the Canadian Criminal Justice Academy (CCJA) for the next two years. The private post-secondary offers a two-year criminal justice diploma, saying it equips learners with the skills needed for a career in criminal justice and related fields.
That news comes as a shock to parents who thought they were giving up their sons’ classrooms for other children living in the area.
“We know there are people in the neighbourhood who are sending their children to schools two neighbourhoods away in 50-person classrooms,” said McKenzie. “So, it was quickly anger.”
Ashley Hug sent three of her four sons to the All Boys program and was planning to send her fourth once he was school-aged. All her boys are neurodivergent and found success in the tailored programming.
“We gave up a lot in hopes a lot of other kids would have smaller class sizes,” said Hug. “It was really devastating to find out what our school has become.”
In a statement to Global News, the CBE says it, “is currently considering all potential future uses for the school,” adding the third-party lease is “for a maximum of up to two-years until it is ready for reoccupation for student learning.”
The CBE says having a tenant is preferable to the building sitting empty while future plans are made. The board says the intention is to return the building to a CBE school but right now there is no timeline for that.
The statement goes on to say “in determining the best use of this school, the CBE must consider a variety of factors including the utilization rates and enrolment at other schools in the area. It’s important that we make a decision that best supports student learning for the CBE as a whole.”
2023 CBE data shows roughly 20 pr cent of students system-wide have special education coding, and about 60 per cent of the students attending the All Boys program had exceptional needs, including specialized services the program wasn’t intended to serve.
However, parents of those students say the small class sizes allowed teachers to structure learning around student needs, and it was that ability that kept Hug’s sons in a classroom with other kids.
“We sought out All Boys as a last resort before homeschooling,” said Hug. “I was frustrated with how much my child was struggling in a regular classroom.”
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