Parkdale elementary school for free#

And so we would really like to see a school in the neighbourhood,' she said. The school is a part of Midland Public Schools, which governs a range of educational facilities. Parkdale Elementary also serves lunch and organizes field trips. It has a parent-teacher organization that supports book fairs and fundraising events, as well as conducts meetings and conferences. We're able to ride our bikes downtown, able to use the pathways, walk around, and when we're looking at schools, we're looking at having to bus her out and potentially quite far. The school maintains a library and resource room. 'There are so many children in this neighborhood and it's absolutely perfect for us. 'It's just a really diverse beautiful community but we don't have the schools the suburban communities do and it just doesn't make any sense to me at all.'Ĭhristine Dougan is already planning for her nine-month-old daughter's schooling. Jennifer Forbes, the mother of 15-month-old, agreed. 'It was open when we moved here and I was hoping it would be open when we had kids and now it's closed,' said Jennifer Bailey, the mother of a 21-month-old. About 25 babies and toddlers play with toys and listen to stories at the playgroup, a sign that neighbourhood is changing. Reopening the school seems to have the support of parents at the busy Parkdale Community Association playgroup. 'We need to look at the choice that people are making within those communities as well so numbers themselves don't specifically explain where people are attending schools and what choices they are making about their child's education.' 'It's just a really diverse beautiful community but we don't have the schools the suburban communities do and it just doesn't make any sense to me at all.'-Jennifer Forbes, parent

Beyond that, we've had people say commuters, for example, would stop by, drop their kids off, go to work downtown,' she said.īoard spokesman Ted Flitton said there is no guarantee all those children would attend a neighbourhood elementary school. 'According to the survey, we have about 128 preschoolers in the neighborhood right now. Now the school is used for administrators with the Calgary Board of Education.Ĭlaudia Weigelsberger is leading the push to reopen Parkdale to students. Parkdale Elementary in northwest Calgary, south of the Foothills Medical Centre, closed in 2003 because it didn't have enough students.

Parkdale elementary school for free#

Students from families with incomes at or below 130% of the federal poverty level are eligible for free meals.įor 2014, a family of two needs to make an annual income below $20,449 to be eligible for free meals or below $29,100 for reduced price meals.Ī family of four needs to make an annual income below $31,005 for free meals or $44,122 for reduced price meals.Parents in an inner-city neighborhood say it is attracting more young families and they want their community school back. Schools may not charge more than 40¢ for reduced-price lunches, nor more than 30¢ for reduced-price breakfasts. Families with incomes between 130%Īnd 185% of the federal poverty level are eligible for reduced price meals.

Students at a participating school may purchase a meal through the National School Lunch Program. This may indicate that the area has a lower level of poverty than the state average. The percentage of Parkdale Elementary School students on free and reduced lunch assistance ( 11.5%) is significantly lower than the state average of 53.2%. Out of 2,554 ranked schools in New York, Parkdale Elementary School is ranked 2,224th for total students on lunch assistance.