Mowbray College - Jewell of the West

Sad, so very very sad. That is how I felt today as I walked around the Melton campus of Mowbray College on its last day. I wasn't a student of the school but just having a son in grade 3 there made me realize what a great loss this college is to the community. The school had a wonderful culture and that was evident in the emotion shared today. The story to date has been around a huge debt, mismanagement of a board, rotating principals and no help from the government. Sadly the real story is the grief I saw today. Little children in the junior school wondering why they couldn't go to school with their friends tomorrow. Teenagers, both boys and girls crying openly at the loss of community that they have shared for the majority of their lives. Senior students stressed about the impact of this on their future lives. I saw teachers struggling to be strong in front of their students but finally giving into emotion and openly weeping and hugging one another. How the teachers stayed focused this long is beyond me and again shows the character of the staff as well as the culture of its school. I can say how wonderful it was to see the teachers being strong and putting their students first right to the end. Last but not least were the parents and former students. There is nothing that raises emotion in an adult then seeing their child in distress. Even this grumpy hard nosed knucklehead had a tear in the eye today. My own son has been so brave through all of this. He tried all day to make people smile and as we jumped in the car to go home, he broke down and cried. "Why Dad? Why does the school have to close down? I won't see my friends again and I'll miss them so much". I didn't give him an answer, just told him it was ok to mourn the loss he was going through and to not hold back. He needs to be able to experience the good and bad of this and grow from it. My job as his parent is to help him move forward in the right time and support him. I watched with my fellow parents as his whole class had a group hug with their wonderful teacher and you could just see the bond between them all. The sad part is that they all now split up and go to different schools. So as I watched the news tonight and saw that there were multiple buyers lining up to take over the school assets, there is already a positive hope on the horizon, and maybe, perhaps maybe a community may return. Let's hope the Jewell shines even brighter next time.