While the Pupil Accommodation Committee won’t meet until Nov. 21 to look at three recommendations for school closures/amalgamations, any decisions aren’t expected to be made for quite some time.
“It would take a minimum of two years, and possibly three or four years, before we see any real changes,” said Gord McBride, a public school board trustee who sits on the committee.
“And there will be plenty of chances for community input,” he pledged. The [Rainy River District School Board] would never announce ‘This school is closing’ out of the blue.’”
The three recommendations were turned over to the committee after the Facilities Review Committee had spent the past several months looking over data about elementary schools in Fort Frances, including which are underused and which need repairs.
“I guess the bottom line is we have 300-400 students in some facilities that could be described as unfit. The problem is there’s not enough money to bring them all up to par,” noted McBride.
“Our job is to look at what the recommendations are and decide what will happen,” he remarked. “But, truthfully, this is just the first step in a very long journey.”
McBride also sat on the Facilities Review Committee along with trustee Dan Belluz, and they will share what they learned from that with the other trustees after the Nov. 13 election.
Education superintendent Terry Ellwood, who will not sit on the committee but instead have a supervisory role, noted one of the conditions of the recommendations made by the first committee was that any changes would require public input.
While what changes to what schools have not been released yet, it is known Robert Moore School here is not under consideration.
But other local schools under review include Alberton, Alexander MacKenzie, J.W. Walker, Huffman, and Sixth Street.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
