Rocky View School trustees say they were astonished and dismayed to learn that one of their schools is leaving to join another school division.

The Edge School, a private sports school in Springbank, has signed an agreement to become part of the Grande Prairie Public School District.

The school will become an alternative public program and set up a matching program in northern Alberta.

But Edge School founder, president and CEO Brent Devost said it wasn’t something he went looking for.

“We’ve been sought by school districts all over North America,” he said adding negotiations with the Grande Prairie district have been going on for almost a year.

But he said for most of that time talks centered around the possibility of setting up a skill academy in Grande Prairie.

“It was only very recently we talked about the Edge becoming an alternative school (in the Grande Prairie district),” he said.

Regardless, Rocky View trustees and administration officials say they are disappointed they didn’t learn of the decision until less than 24 hours before the public announcement.

“We wish them well, but it doesn’t change how disappointed we are not to have had the first right of refusal,” said Rocky View superintendent Greg Bass, adding that over the years his board has been approached many times by schools in other divisions wanting to join Rocky View.

“But we have always said no because they are outside the boundary,” he explained adding no other school has ever left Rocky View.

His division, he said, has always prided itself in offering alternative programming, citing the Cochrane Christian Program and the Lutheran Prince of Peace School, and would have been open to discussions with the Edge as well, if they had the opportunity.

“So we’re quite concerned that this has happened,” he said Feb. 1.

Though Devost admits one of the reasons for the move is financially motivated, he also maintains it’s all about making tuition more affordable for parents.

Private schools receive 70 per cent of the funding that a public school is awarded, based on the number of students enrolled.

The remaining shortfall comes from tuition. But when a private school becomes an alternative program in a public system, its students receive the entire government per student grant.

“There are a whole bunch of factors,” insisted Devost. “But partnering can be a more affordable opportunity. We don’t want to be an exclusive school, so yes, that was important.”

But he added Rocky View wasn’t deliberately excluded.

“I don’t want to comment on them other than to say we were approached,” he said. “We were not intentionally leaving them out.”

Bass is also concerned that parents of Edge students can no longer vote for the school board that governs their childrens’ school.

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