Kelvin brings gym riot to legislature

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This article was published 07/04/2017 (3134 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Students at Kelvin High School exercised their right to protest at the legislature on April 5, calling on the provincial government to restore funding for a new gym facility.

Under the former provincial government, about $6.7 million had been promised to the school for the construction of a new active living facility. The community had raised over $1 million to support the project that would allow all students to access a gym facility during school hours.

Because of the school’s population growth, Grade 11 and 12 students cannot use the school’s one gym during class time and instead fulfil their gym requirements through extra-curricular activities or at their own expense. The provincial government cancelled the funding for the gym expansion on March 3.

“Kelvin students, Kelvin families, Kelvin alumni, and the community have raised over $1 million towards this project,” Shawna Nagler-Neufeld, chair of the Kelvin High School Parent Advisory Council (PAC), told the assembly on the legislature’s front lawn. “They have invested in you, in your future, and the need for you to have the infrastructure you need to engage in your learning in a meaningful and authentic way.”

The Kelvin PAC organized the rally and covered the costs of transporting some of the high school students to the legislature for the afternoon. Nagler-Neufeld said education and training minister Ian Wishart has agreed to meet the council on April 18 to discuss funding for the gym project. She also invited Wishart and Premier Brian Pallister to visit Kelvin High School and see the current gym space.

“We want the minister to recognize the efforts that these kids have put forward,” Nagler-Neufeld said.

“My main message for the minister is take a look at what we have, take a look at what we need, and take a look at why. We need to put investments in our children, their future, in their physical activity.”

Thomas Wright, a Grade 12 student and co-president of Kelvin’s student council, said he hasn’t had a class in the school’s gym for two years and the cancellation sends a negative message to the province’s students.

Provincial funding for a sports field rehabilitation project at Dakota Collegiate was also cancelled at the same time as Kelvin’s active living centre.

“It’s at the point where Grade 11 and 12 students don’t have in-class access to the gym. One hundred per cent of their physical activity requirements are met outside of class time at their personal expense,” Wright explained.

Wright’s co-president Elijah Dietrich said the shortage of athletic facilities at Kelvin High School affects the studies of students and called for a commitment from the province to build a new gym by 2021.

“We need to give future Kelvin students the opportunities a second gym would afford them and that Thomas and I wish we have had,” Dietrich said.

Nagler-Neufeld said the community at Kelvin was shocked, upset and hurt when it learned about the cancelled funding through the media.

“The Kelvin Parent Advisory Council recognizes that the current government may not have history with our project and we respect the need to make sure funding is allocated in a fiscally responsible manner,” Nagler-Neufeld said.

“We really believe in the need for a gym. We know it to be true,” she added. “It felt a little bit tone deaf that that was being dropped.”

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Kelvin High School students arriving at the Legislature to rally for funding for the school's gym and active living centre pic.twitter.com/lCrGglCe6p

— The Sou'wester (@SouwesterWPG) April 5, 2017