PORT HASTINGS: The superintendent of schools for the Strait regional school board (SRSB) is striking an optimistic tone about the province’s plan to purchase four of the board’s public-private-partnership (P3) buildings, including an Inverness County school that the board had hoped to see replaced.
Nova Scotia’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (EECD) confirmed last week that it would spend $50.5 million to purchase 11 schools across the province, including Richmond Education Centre/Academy (RECA), Tamarac Education Centre (TEC), East Antigonish Education Centre and Academy (EAECA), and Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre and Academy (CBHECA). The schools were developed by Ashford Investments in conjunction with BPC Penco (Nova Scotia) Incorporated, a portfolio company of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).
While the SRSB had made a pitch to EECD earlier this year to build a new school to replace CBHECA, which is currently operating at 45 per cent capacity, superintendent of schools Ford Rice told last week’s regular board meeting that the board still has other options to use the entirety of the space at the Terre Noire school building. These include proposals under the EECD’s Hub School Model criteria, or partitioning off the excess space for use outside of the typical school format.
“Because of the rural geographical nature of our board, in all likelihood, there will likely always be some form of a school in Terre Noire and that area,” Rice told reporters following the December 7 meeting.
“Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre/Academy is a large school, and as the lease expires for that school and it’s taken over by the province, the board will probably explore alternate uses for the school, especially when we update our Long-Range Outlook in the New Year.”
In the meantime, the SRSB superintendent is pleased that EECD has approved the board’s request to purchase RECA, TEC and EAECA, as well as the extension of a deadline to give notification on the future of the SRSB’s three remaining P3 schools, Dalbrae Academy, Bayview Education Centre, and Antigonish Education Centre. This deadline now falls on April 30, 2017, allowing the three schools in question to go through the full school review process currently underway in Antigonish County and central Inverness County.
During an update on the P3 school purchases at last week’s SRSB meeting, Rice pointed out that the impending P3 purchase decision deadline should not be a deciding factor in whether the schools currently under review should remain open or close their doors.
“The board may say, ‘Minister, we want all three P-3 schools,’ the board may say, ‘Minister, we don’t want any of the P-3 schools,’ the board may say, ‘Minister, we want two out of three or one out of three of the P-3 schools,’” Rice noted.
“That will depend on what happens between now and April 30, when the reviews close and the board has had time to really digest all the information that they receive at that period of time, and we will make a recommendation to the minister.”