Staff
The Rainy River District School Board has given the go-ahead for formal pupil accommodation reviews at Donald Young School in Emo, Sturgeon Creek in Barwick, and Crossroads School in Devlin.
The first of the reviews will happen at Donald Young, with the other two schools following one at a time, Director of Education Heather Campbell said after last night’s special board meeting that saw trustees approve the reviews as well as the 2011-12 budget.
The whole process could take more than three years to complete—one year per school.
“It’s just [looking at] the school facility and enrolment needs, [and] impact on the school, students, community, economy,” noted Campbell.
“It’s a step in the process to evaluate what next steps to do with respect to the schools,” she added.
The next step will be to establish a review committee.
“In 2005, the Donald Young School was designated as ‘prohibitive to repair,’” trustee David Kircher noted as part of a report to the board from the finance committee on why pupil accommodation reviews were needed.
“The board submitted a request for funding for over $6 million to rebuild the school at the same site.”
The Ministry of Education is now looking for solutions that are projects which can be built in the next year, projects which are consolidations of schools, or what can be accomplished with less money, Kircher added.
In discussing plans for DYS, Kircher said that with Sturgeon Creek and Crossroads being in close proximity, all three schools could be included in an accommodation review.
“The timing of and format of the reviews were discussed,” he noted.
“It was agreed in committee that the establishment of three accommodation review committees would be staggered, and that the format would be a formal pupil accommodation review be utilized as opposed to an internal board review of schools.”
Kircher also said the finance committee requested that the process be “open and accessible” to all stakeholders and board constituents.
Throughout each individual pupil accommodation review, a minimum of four public meeting must be held.
The complete process and guidelines for pupil accommodation reviews can be found under board policy 6.5 on its website (www.rrdsb.com).
