Facing a choice between three recommendations, the Rainy River District School Board last night decided to look at renovating J.W. Walker and Huffman Schools here while closing Alexander MacKenzie, Alberton, and Sixth Street School.
But the decision is a tentative one, made only to give some “direction” to the board before it begins its public consultation process early next year, new chair Gord McBride stressed.
“If we pick a recommendation tonight, it says to the public, ‘This is the direction in which we intend to go. We want to hear from you,’” he remarked.
The recommendation–which would see J.W. Walker expanded to accommodate pupils from Alexander MacKenzie and Alberton, and renovations to Huffman, which would consolidate with Sixth Street–was chosen from the three presented to the board by the Pupil Accommodation Committee.
The committee, in turn, had received the recommendations from the Facilities Review Committee earlier this fall.
Before choosing a recommendation, trustees talked at length about the necessity of doing so. Education Director Warren Hoshizaki had noted while a decision didn’t have to be made at that meeting, or even the next one, it would have to be made by the end of February in order to get plans for public consultation underway.
But vice-chair Dan Belluz said now that the responsibility of making a recommendation was in the board’s hands, things would have to keep moving if it was to ensure there would be a public consensus on whatever the closures and renovations ultimately may be–a concern emphasized by trustees Ron McAlister and Frank Sheppard.
“If we pick a recommendation, we can present it to the public, and give them a better idea what could happen,” said Belluz. “If they don’t accept it, then it comes back to us and we look at another.”
While Sheppard ultimately voted for the motion, he was its most vocal critic. “We already have a very large volume of students out there, not only from our board but other systems,” he remarked.
“I think the biggest problem is space. When you’re talking adding 120 students, a gymnasium, and increased parking [at Walker], I don’t know if that lot can handle it,” Sheppard said.
“They already have parking problems at the high school,” he added.
Trustee Martin Darrah agreed increased traffic in that already heavy-volume area likely would prove a problem. But Terry Ellwood, chair of the Facilities Review Committee, countered that there already has been discussion about having a parking area northeast of Walker so vehicles and buses would not impede traffic flow on Keating Avenue.
The other two recommendations before the board were to shut down Walker and MacKenzie and consolidate their populations with Sixth Street in a new school, or to simply renovate Walker and consolidate with MacKenzie and Alberton.
These options may still be considered, depending on public reaction to the recommendation chosen last night.
Details such as when public consultations will be held, whether preliminary schematics of school renovations will be obtained before the consultation process, and if so, how much will the board be willing to spend all will be answered in the next couple months.
The recommendations were devised by trustees, board administration, and school council chairs from Alberton, MacKenzie, Walker, Huffman, Robert Moore, and Sixth Street, who met several times to discuss data collected earlier this year on schools in and around Fort Frances.
Both the Facilities Review and Pupil Accommodation committees were formed to take a look at how the board could tend to increasing repairs at its schools with an insufficient annual school renewal grant.
Fort Frances Times
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