KEMPTVILLE – At last week’s Upper Canada District School Board meeting, trustees voted in favour of all of the staff recommendations tabled as part of the Building for the Future pupil accommodation review.
Fortunately for South Dundas schools named in the initial staff report, the final staff report had removed those schools from the closure list, for now, saying that more time is required to reach a solution for the Seaway feeder group of schools.
Asked exactly what more time means for Seaway, without hesitation, UCDSB chair Jeff McMillan told The Leader, “Five years.”
Since Seaway and Morrisburg Public School were part of this accommodation review process, McMillan said that the provincial guideline which says that schools that go through this process cannot be subject to it for five years does come into play.
McMillan did mention that if the feeder group suddenly experienced a drastic change in enrolment numbers, that could be an extenuating circumstance that could shorten the five year window.
“We have a lot of work to do in these five years,” said McMillan.
He said that the municipality made some interesting offers during the public process and that the board and municipality will need to continue the conversations about those offers in the very near future.
Overall, McMillan said that the UCDSB chose to go big with this review that took a look at 29 schools.
“We chose to take a good look at this big picture, rather than look at a few schools every year,” he said.
“What we do know is that the status quo won’t work,” concluded McMillan.
Pick up your copy of the Morrisburg Leader today at your local newsstand for more coverage on the final vote for the UCDSB school closures.