Students answered back, with the same chant.
Around 150 students chanted, waved signs and applauded as cars drove by Kensington Intermediate and Senior High School on Tuesday as students from the school protested the teacher reallocations.
Grade 11 student Hillary Bernard was one of them.
“It’s unfair that our school doesn’t have enough opportunities as more urban schools.
“I want to complete the travel and tourism certificate program our school offers, but if the teacher allocations happen, I’ll lose my chance.”
Bernard needs a slew of elective courses like foods, culinary, hospitality and creative multimedia.
“To get that certificate I need so many electives and with the cutbacks, it will hurt my chances at getting into a post secondary program that I want.”
It’s the government’s way of forcing schools to close, she surmised.
“It’s their roundabout way of closing the schools or forcing them to combine by taking away the teachers. It’s like you fought for you school, you have your building, now try running it without teachers.”
Grade 9 student Chloe Green has three more years at the school.
“I take my education very seriously.”
Green hopes to move to Alberta and become a police officer after finishing high school and post secondary.
She said the teacher cuts could be devastating.
“I worry I won’t have the courses I need or my future opportunities are going to be taken away. Unfortunately, if things don’t work out the way we want, I might have to consider attending a more urban located school such as Three Oaks.”
Kensington Mayor Rowan Caseley also attended the protest.
“It’s important that schools stay in all kinds of communities. We should always have a focal point for our youth.
“This area is too important to have school resources and education cut in any fashion.”
Caseley said he understands the difficulty of balancing a budget, but it should not come at the expense of education.
Caseley is pleased by the level of support students, Islanders and politicians from other areas are showing for teachers.
“There is a strong community presence around here, and there is general support across the Island for these changes to be reconsidered.
“[The government] needs to put in place a three-to-five-year plan but cuts to education shouldn’t be a part of that in any way, shape or form. Period.”
Juanita Boucher, president of the school’s Canadian Parents for French association, is worried the cuts will mean the loss of the school’s French program.
“Students deserve every opportunity to learn French in schools if they want. But that will be taken away from them. Every year we fight to keep it here.”
Attempts to contact Parker Grimmer of the Public Schools Branch for the final allocation numbers were unsuccessful.
