By David MacDonald
david@peicanada.com

Two Montague Intermediate students will make their case as to why their school needs a long-promised $1.2 million expansion when they meet with Premier Robert Ghiz and Education Minister Alan McIssac next Tuesday afternoon, February 14, in Charlottetown.
Grade 7 student Eve MacKinnon and Grade 8 student Chloe Jardine had created a petition asking for support for the expansion, which would include an expanded music room and a new industrial arts lab.
The two students had a goal of 1,000 signatures, and say they’ve collected between 700 and 800 but haven’t counted all the signatures yet.
Chloe and Eve say they have a lot to talk about when they sit down with the premier.
“It’s one thing to do this around the community but to take it to the people who run the whole Island means we did a good job and got this far,” Chloe said.
Chloe said many people think Montague Intermediate has everything the student’s need. But she said the school doesn’t have a teacher planning room or a proper cafeteria. The students currently eat their lunches in the classroom.
“Just asking for these two rooms (music and industrial arts) is far less than what we could ask for,” Chloe said.
Eve said the air quality is still not good inside the old high school where the students continue to take their industrial arts classes.
“It gets really cold to walk there now,” Eve said.
The students say after the meeting it will be up to the province to make a decision. They say that as students, they shouldn’t have to fight this hard just because they go to school in rural PEI.
“After this meeting, we really have nothing else we can do,” Chloe said. “Once we give them our case, it’s up to them to decide whether they will give the money or not.”