Changes coming for Catholic School Board

When the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board meets in June, a final decision will be made on the futures of a pair of elementary schools.

An accommodation review committee has recommended that students from St. Theresa school join students from St. Ann, St. Pius and St. Bernadette when the students from those schools move into the current St. Basil Secondary School site.

The St. Basil site will be open when they new catholic secondary school opens and consolidates St. Basil and St. Mary’s on a new site.

Should board trustees accept the recommendation, the move would take place in Sept. 2016, which is at the same time that the other three schools are also expected to make the move.

“That’s pending enrollment as things could change (between now and then),” said Director of Education John Stadnyk.

Stadnyk added that the initial idea was to consolidate just one more school into the St. Basil site along with the three schools already penciled in to moving.

“Our original capital plan talked about consolidating our central city schools in to the St. Basil site,” said Stadnyk. “That site has more room than the central schools would produce enrollment for so we came to the trustees and said that we have two other schools that we should look at (St. Theresa and St. John) with one of those schools possibly closing and students being redirected to the St. Basil site.”

In the end, the committee made the current recommendation that sees St. Theresa students make the move to the St. Basil site while St. John students would also have a new home.

The committee recommended that St. John students be moved to Our Lady of Lourdes. The consolidation of the two schools could occur as early as 2014, should the recommendation be accepted by trustees.

Standyk also said that parents who have concerns with the recommendations for either school can still bring their concerns to the board, as the final vote will not come until June.

“The process now is that it has come to the board, the administration will report and the trustees will have a chance to digest it at the May meeting and then vote on it in June,” said Stadnyk. “If there is a delegation or individuals that would like to make a presentation to the board regarding this, there is a way that they can do that.”

One concern raised by trustees as well as some parents has been the transportation of students.

In their monthly meeting on Wednesday night, raised was the concern of some students possibly being bused passed one school in order to attend another, which is something that will be addressed according to Stadnyk.

“What was being referred to was some boundary changes that occurred around 1999 regarding an area around Beaumont, off Peoples Rd. and where those students would be attending,” Stadnyk said. “They were allowed to attend St. Theresa even though they’re closer to St. John. We will analyze the boundaries as we look at the recommendations to try to ensure that our transportation is efficient.”

A final decision will be made by the trustees when they meet in June.