Dear Hon Robert Ghiz and elected government officials,
My name is Chloe Jardine and I am an eighth grade student at Montague Intermediate School. I am writing to you in regards to the expansion of the music and industrial arts facilities promised to our school. As you may recall, the expansion was to include an expanded music room to accommodate our growing band. Also, an industrial arts lab connected to the school to replace the current area located in the decommissioned old high school. The project went through the tender process twice, but was cancelled yet again. As a student who participates in both programs I am very disappointed with this decision and am hoping to give you something to think about.
As a student who participates in the music program at Montague Intermediate I am qualified to tell you how appalling the situation is. Firstly, the room that currently houses the music program was never intended for the purpose and secondly, is unfit for its current function. The music room is actually a multi-purpose room that now cannot be used for the purpose it was initially built.
When the music program began at Montague Intermediate I’m sure the room worked fine but over the years the band has grown out of the room. Each time you play your instrument whether it’s in class or during an early morning band rehearsal you must set up in the hall because there is no space in the music room for all of the students let alone 80 cases. As someone who experiences this first hand, I believe it takes away time from the class and leaves students in that part of the corridor (which is just off the front doors and main office) tripping over books, cases, people and instruments.
The music program at Montague Intermediate will only grow as students from rural schools, like Southern Kings Consolidated and Belfast Consolidated are choosing to transfer to Montague Intermediate and take advantage of this program. Not only to gain the musical opportunities it offers them but also the boost it gives them in the rest of their classes. We are not asking for money for new instruments or anything like that as the school has and always will provide, we are just asking for somewhere to play these instruments.
Our esteemed band teacher, Jonathan MacInnis, has been looking forward to this expansion more than the students and he is the most fit to tell you how bad our conditions are as his desk is in the corner and used more like a storage space. The second time the project went to tender and got bumped Mr MacInnis was left to tell the parents, faculty and students during a heartfelt speech at a band concert. If you are going to cancel a promised project that affects a bunch of innocent teenagers the least you could do is tell us to our faces.
Not only is the room dysfunctional to the students and the teacher and destructive to instruments, it is also harmful to our health. High decibel levels, poor ventilation and crowding are actually hurting our ear drums. With 80 students in our Grade 8 & 9 band it is impossible to have a proper rehearsal as well, because the fire marshal has told Montague Intermediate the room is only built for 40 students with instruments at a time.
This band program is very important to the people who participate in it, and all we are asking is that we are treated fairly and are given an adequate space for the program to continue and grow. As I am part of the situation every day I just want you to know that if this is left much longer the school will lose a beloved teacher, an award winning band, a class which helps students ability in their other classes and most importantly there will be angry teenagers that have no one to blame but you.
The industrial arts facilities currently used at Montague Intermediate is a portion of the old Montague High School, which closed two years ago. For each class students must walk five minutes up a road that gets very icy during the winter months. Students must sacrifice their 10 minute break, the only one besides lunch or leave quickly between classes just to get to Industrial Arts on time and lose 10 minutes of class time from either Industrial Arts or whatever class they have next going back. As someone who experiences this walk for 13 weeks each school year, I am able to tell you that it is very dangerous not only during the winter months but all year round.

Also there is a chance that someone could fall on the ice and get seriously injured and with no one supervision that leaves the students to deal with any situation that may happen themselves. All through the year there is always a risk that again a student could fall and get hurt or a risk of students getting hit by passing vehicles as part of the walk is on the shoulder of a fairly busy street.
Not only do the students from Montague Intermediate use the decommissioned high school for Industrial Arts, students from Belfast, Southern Kings, Vernon River and Georgetown Schools are bused to this facility during their Grade 7 and 8 years. This means you are not only disappointing the students from Montague Intermediate but also about 150 more students from rural areas. All of these students must use a facility that is not only unsafe but also unhealthy.
The old high school was deemed unsafe for the high school students, why is it okay for the intermediate school students and our teacher? Our teacher, Mr Eugene Dowling, is cut off from our school all day and is in a place that is harmful to everybody’s health and safety, in a building where there have been break-ins, graffiti covers the exterior walls and windows and doors have been broken. Not only is this area unhealthy because of the poor air quality it has but there very well could be something like mold behind the walls. You are so busy building, repairing and checking the Charlottetown area schools that you didn’t bother considering the rural students you may be putting at risk.
In September 2010 I moved from East Royalty in Charlottetown to Montague. The message you are sending to not just me but hundreds of other rural students is that we are not as important as the students in Charlottetown. To me, you are giving me the message that before I moved I was more important than I am now. You put this project to tender twice and then it was cancelled, how can a project be cancelled when there is money put aside for it and if our expansion is such a priority why did it not happen the first time it went to tender or the second?
The conditions you are putting us through are unfit and it is unfair to us. If our school was in Charlottetown I’m sure you would’ve found the money for this expansion. You cannot tell us that our project is not important. How about you try putting your office where Mr MacInnis’ or Mr Dowling’s have theirs for a day. If you are worried you will lose votes if you don’t please the people in Charlottetown just think you are losing votes from the rural residents and I can guarantee you that you will be losing votes in the future from the angry, disappointed and under-appreciated students of Montague Intermediate and other rural schools. All we ask is that you think about the situation we are facing at Montague Intermediate and how you can help the students.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Chloe Jardine