ANTIGONISH: A committee examining the future of five schools in the Town of Antigonish and the surrounding communities has recommended that the Strait regional school board (SRSB) proceed with the closure of the most recently-built structure in the feeder system, but committee members are far from unanimous on this position.
The School Options Committee (SOC) reviewing the Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School feeder system for the SRSB voted 7-4 in favour of the closure of Antigonish Education Centre (AEC), a public-private-partnership (P3) school constructed in 2000, during the SOC’s last working committee meeting on March 6.
This vote took place less than two weeks after SOC representatives confirmed at a public meeting in Antigonish that the committee was deliberating on a single option that would see the status-quo retained for the feeder system.
As a result, the board will now consider a SOC recommendation to house students from Grades Primary to 6 in three of the feeder system’s schools – Antigonish’s St. Andrew Junior School (SAJS), St. Andrew’s Consolidated School (SACS), and Maryvale-based H.M. MacDonald School (HMMS) – with all students from Grades 7 to 12 to be housed at Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School.
While the SRSB considers its options for a final vote on the feeder system that must be held no later than April 30, the four dissenting members of the SOC have jointly filed a minority report to the board, explaining their decision to reject the SOC’s official recommendation.
Speaking to The Reporter Monday morning, SOC chair Deepak Prasad suggested that the group’s third and final community-engagement meeting, attended by nearly 100 people, left the committee with more feedback to consider than it had received in its previous two public forums. With this in mind, SOC members tackled the difficult question of whether the closure of AEC – located within a short walk of SAJS – could free up the resources to ensure the proper amount of staffing and programs for the remaining four schools.
“If we keep AEC open in 2021 [after the current P3 lease expires], we’re looking at an operating cost at over $520,000 per year, plus applicable [human resources],” Prasad pointed out.
“So the question was asked: What would that get us if the school board re-invested that money back into our feeder system? And that was something along the line of six classroom teachers or approximately 18 teacher assistants. And that was huge.”
Prasad also noted that the committee wished to protect the school sites in Maryvale and St. Andrews, which he described as “two little gems,” and expressed optimism that older students at Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School would provide encouragement and mentorship to the proposed addition of Grade 7 and 8 students.
In the meantime, Prasad is pledging to address opposition to the SOC’s AEC-closure recommendation at the next SRSB public meeting dealing with the Antigonish-area school review. Prasad also defended the committee’s decision to hold a secret ballot on the issue, noting that this decision occurred after he received word that one committee member was threatening to call for a recorded vote to ensure that all members of the public would be aware of which SOC representatives were voting for closure.
“The reason a member asked for a secret ballot was not to protect the identity from the public of how we voted, but to ensure that members were able to vote freely,” Prasad declared.
“And the information that has come forward to me now is so disturbing that, if I was aware of it beforehand, as chairperson, I would have sought the removal of that person off the committee. That’s how severe the situation has become.”