ATLANTIC

Mixed reaction to board’s decision to close 17 Cape Breton schools

CTV Atlantic Published Wednesday, April 13, 2016 7:55PM ADT

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The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board has voted to permanently close 17 schools in the district over the next five years.

Students and parents at Harbourside Elementary School were surprised by the news that their school will be closing by September 2020.

“It’s a very nice school, and I think that it shouldn’t be closing down. It’s unfair because Harbourside’s the newest school in Whitney Pier,” says Faith Tubrett, a student at Harbourside Elementary.

“Small kids should stay with small kids, and leave them away from big kids,” says parent David Clyke.

“I think schools will be overcrowded from here on in. That’s a lot of schools to close,” says grandparent Patti MacDonald.

By 2021, 17 elementary and middle schools will close in communities all across the school board. Some schools are small and aging, while the school board says others are just too expensive to keep.

The chair of the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board says this decision wasalso necessary because of plummeting student numbers.

“In the last ten years, we were losing the equivalent of a school a year with the declining enrollment…well over 300 students a year,” says schoolboard chair Lorne Green.

The union which represents school support staff calls the closures ‘devastating’, as its 1,400 members now face an uncertain future.

“There’s definitely going to be an impact. We know our members are going to be impacted, but the extent of what it will be… we’re not really absolutely sure,” says CUPE National Representative Kathy MacLeod.

In addition to the closures, the school board is requesting that brand new schools be built in two communities. A new elementary school in the Glace Bay area and a new middle school on the Northside.

“We’re gonna fight hard now, work with local politicians, our local MLAs to make sure this gets going sooner than later,” says Paul Prince, a member of a community school options committee.

This might not be the last round of school closures in future.

“If outmigration continues, we could be faced with this again in five to seven years,” says Green.

The following schools will close in September: