Huffman School review slated Monday

With F.H. Huffman School one of three schools designated as “prohibitive to repair” (PTR), the Rainy River District School Board is holding an Accommodation Review Committee meeting there Monday evening and the public is invited to attend.
“The board is looking at the possibility of consolidating Huffman, which would mean bringing it together with Robert Moore, if we were to receive funding, and then do a rebuild on the Robert Moore site,” Heather Campbell, the board’s superintendent of education, noted this morning.
She explained the board does not have to do an accommodation review for Robert Moore School, which also is deemed PTR along with Donald Young School in Emo.
“It would just be a new school being built on the existing site. It’s at Huffman School that if we consolidate, we would have to then close,” Campbell remarked.
“Then we have to go through a process called a Pupil Accommodation Review, whereby the committee has public consultation and works through a framework, which helps them to elicit feedback from the community and then make recommendations to the board whether or not they should close, to consolidate, or to continue to keep Huffman open,” she indicated.
Campbell noted the framework will provide data and information in four main areas: value to the student, value to the school system, value to the community, and value to the local economy.
“Value to the student, though, is paramount,” she stressed, noting the board has to put its main focus in decision-making based on that information.
She encourages the public to come out Monday night to find out more about the process, make comments, or ask questions.
“The questions can be questions for the committee then to consider and to find information on to ensure they have that question answered, not simply for the community member who attends, but for themselves when they make a recommendation,” she added.
Information, such as the agenda and framework, will be available on the school board’s website—www.rrdsb.com—prior to Monday’s meeting, which starts at 6:30 p.m. in the gymnasium at Huffman.
Campbell noted, however, they will not have questions posted to the website.
“So it’s important that if people have questions, they come to the consultation,” she stressed.