Campaigning to save Adventure Class

Parents across Hastings Prince Edward counties are campaigning to save the Adventure Class program in schools.

Parents in Belleville, Prince Edward County and Quinte West are working to save the Adventure Class program, now in its 37th year at Queen Victoria Public School, from closure by the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board.

The provincially-recognized and awarded program focused on experiential, hands-on learning, is slated for “evaluation” by the school board, with the goal of cancelling it in time for the 2023-24 school year.

Spokesperson for the Save The Adventure Class Program, Keelin Meyer, says this would leave parents, students and teachers without this educational option.

Mayer tells Quinte News a review was supposed to occur this academic year but has not started.

“We have a lot of stressed out students wondering if they have a program next year, where they’re going to be going school, whether or not they will get to stay with their friends.”

 

“A lot of parents are saying if this program doesn’t live they will remove their children from the public school system because it is not meeting their children’s needs. “

Mayer commented that the program was well established in the system.

The Adventure Class, for the past 37 years, has operated on a self-sufficient, parent-involved model, recognized as a best practice by the Ministry of Education, successfully graduating hundreds of students, across the socio-economic spectrum, over its history. This program does
not require any additional funds from the school board, or its individual families.
“The Adventure Class provides students with an inclusive and community-based learning environment focused on multi-age learning, collaboration and an experiential approach to achieving Ontario curriculum goals. The core principles of the Adventure Class model align
perfectly with the HPEDSB strategic plan, but it finds itself under attack and under threat of cancellation by the very school board that used the program as a model of innovative education for decades. Save the Adventure Class is a group of devastated parents, students, teachers
and community members dedicated to the preservation of this incredible program for years to come.”
In a time of budget cuts and the homogenization of education across Ontario, Save the Adventure Class is determined to bring visibility to this pressing issue, and are encouraging those who want to see this model remain an educational option to make their voices heard by pressuring the HPEDSB to reverse their course of action for the benefit of children who learn in alternative ways and thrive in a multi-grade adaptive learning environment across the region.
For further information: you can contact Keelin Mayer, kfkmayer18@gmail.com or 613-848-4089, or visit Save the Adventure Class Program #STAC on Facebook and www.adventure