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Schools SD72 considers Discovery Passage and Oyster River schools for closure Mike Davies Campbell RiveR miRRoR
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ecommendations have been made by senior staff of School District 72 (SD72) – and have been accepted by the district’s Board of Trustees – to begin the process that may see the closure of Discovery Passage and Oyster River elementary schools. At the Dec. 8 meeting of the board, it was decided that two elementary schools in the district needed to be closed due to various factors, and staff were tasked with producing – in time for consideration at this week’s meeting – a report recommending which two they would be. Beginning in September, students currently attending Oyster River Elementary would begin attending Ocean Grove Elementary and students attending Discovery Passage would attend Ripple Rock Elementary should the closures come to pass on the currently-proposed timeline. The recommendations were accepted by the Board of Trustees at the Jan. 12 public meeting after receiving the report from senior staff outlining the rationale behind
the choice of schools.
The rationale: Enrolment Issues Oyster River Elementary’s enrolment has seen a steep decrease over the years. Despite merging the population of Maple Elementary into that facility in 2003, the school still sits at only 40 per cent of its capacity. Student enrolment in that catchment has dropped 81 per cent over the past two decades, and that decrease is projected to continue. While Discovery Passage Elementary rebounded slightly this past September from its historic low of 56 students just a few years ago to, now, 70 students, the 57-year-old facility is still at only 53 per cent capacity. And they can’t solve the enrolment problems by enforcing catchment areas, due to provincial “school-ofchoice” legislation contained in the Schools Act. “You can’t force neighbourhood kids to attend their neighbourhood school,” Superintendent Tom Longridge told the board and those assembled to hear the recommen-
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A child swings on the playground at their school, Discovery Passage Elementary, after it has closed for the day Wednesday. This September, it might be closed altogether, along with Oyster River Elementary, as the public consultation process has begun to close both of those facilities.
dations Tuesday night. “They can choose to go anywhere in the district should there be space and an appropriate program for them to attend.” The district could change the catchment boundary lines to encourage more enrolment, but at the end of the day, people still get to choose where they want to send their kids and approximately one quarter of the students in the catchment areas for these two schools are already choosing to attend school elsewhere. Parents or guardians of 28 students in the Oyster River catchment and 23 students in the Discovery Passage catchment area already choose to send their kids elsewhere
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for school – the majority of which attend Ocean Grove or Ripple Rock, respectively.
The rationale: Financial Issues Oyster River and Discovery Passage are each in need of more than $2-million in repairs, and it’s difficult to acquire government funding for repairs when you can’t demonstrate you’re making the best use of your space, according to SecretaryTreasurer Kevin Patrick. “They’re going to take a look at the building, they’re going to take a look at the excess capacity,” Patrick told the board, “and they’re going
to ask the question, ‘Is it better to spend $2.3 million on this facility or is it better to move the students elsewhere?’ and they will reject a request for funding if they feel there isn’t a sufficient answer there.” Basically, the district has to demonstrate its current space is being well-utilized before it can ask for money to fix that space, and right now, it isn’t in a position where it can reasonably expect to demonstrate that. Discovery Passage and Oyster River are also two of the most costly facilities in the district to operate. Based on the numbers presented in the recommendation, Oyster
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