[1]STIRLING – The former Junior School in Stirling has recently gained No Trespassing signs as new owners take control of the building. Photo By Emma Persaud, QNet News
By Emma Persaud [2]
STIRLING – The residents of Stirling [3] are preparing for a new English immersion school to come to town as early as September 2016.
The village’s former junior and primary schools have been up for sale since 2014 when they were consolidated into one new public school. Last week they were bought by an international education company to become a private boarding school for high-school students from other countries, mainly China. Mayor Rodney Cooney confirmed that the former primary school will be turned into the student residence.
According to a report in the Belleville Intelligencer [4], Stirling-Rawdon can hope to get between $30,000 and $40,000 annually through taxes on the private school. Along with these funds, jobs will be created. Cooney said he looks forward to seeing teachers, maintenance workers and local contractors finding work because of it.
The work has already begun. According to Jamie Troke, the realtor for the properties, as soon as they were sold the new owners began to change things: they immediately added no-trespassing signs and began plans to modernize the former junior school with digital whiteboards and a bigger gym.
“This is not a low-end school,” Troke said. “The students will be paying between $35,000 and $45,000 a year in tuition.”
Along with the revenue and jobs, the school will be bringing up to 300 young people to Stirling.
While Cooney has called the new school “a great opportunity for growth,” conversations by QNet News with local residents indicated that not everyone agrees with him.
Chad Polyblank, a resident for the past two years, says he doesn’t want Stirling to change.
“I wouldn’t say we’re excited about it,” Polyblank said. “Stirling is going to get bigger and it’s kind of nice the way it is. It’s safe. I can leave my car unlocked at night and I wake up in the morning and everything is fine, and I would hate to see that change.”
Mike Groh, who has lived in Stirling for three years, said he thinks the former primary school should have been used for a community centre instead:
Groh added that he thinks more needs to be done for local young people:
http://www.qnetnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/mike-groh-edit-2.mp3 [6]But many residents, particularly business owners, said they are excited about the coming change. Karen West, owner of the bookstore West Wings [7], said she looks forward to seeing what having high-school students will do for local business. Most Stirling students go to high school in Quinte West, since there is no secondary school in the village.
“With high-school students, they could really support local businesses,” West said. “So that would be great.”
It will be important for Stirling to have facilities such as internet availability for these new students, and for them to be able to meet and hang out with local people, she added:
http://www.qnetnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/west-on-highschool-plans.mp3 [8]That is exactly what the Stirling Public Library [9] is trying to figure out. The library’s chief executive officer, Sue Winfield, said she is already consulting with the company bringing in the school so that the library will be able to provide services to the students.
“It would be pretty interesting if we could hold something like a welcome night for them,” she said. “It would be good to get information from all the groups in the community to give as some sort of welcome wagon.”
Winfield said she thinks it’s important for the students to feel welcome in the village, to fight the loneliness that comes from being so far from home.
“Stirling is a small community and just wandering down the streets doesn’t really tell you what your community has to offer.”
Long-time resident Jill Haggerty said she hopes the school will help to lessen the tax burden on current homeowners: “We need more people in this town (to) bring our taxes down – it would be great.”
Haggerty said she isn’t worried about how the students, or Stirling, will feel about the change.
“They’ll be welcome. Everyone is welcome here.”
To share your thoughts, comment below or go to @EPersaud_QNet [10] on Twitter.