Huron-Superior board to put school up for sale

Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) trustees, at their final meeting of 2018, held Wednesday, voted to declare Sister Mary Clare Elementary School surplus property and available for sale.

The school, located at 178 Glen Ave., along with St. Mark and St. Hubert Elementary Schools, was first declared surplus and available for sale by the board once those schools were vacated in the fall of 2012.

It was later decided in March 2013 Sister Mary Clare would still be needed for board purposes, the school used for storage since that time.

Now that St. Pius Elementary School is vacated and used for storage, trustees have approved a board recommendation to once again declare Sister Mary Clare Elementary School surplus property and available for sale.

The property, under provincial Education Act regulations, must be listed for sale for 90 days to other educational organizations, such as another school board, Sault College, Algoma University or to Indigenous organizations.

After 90 days, if no interest in the property has been shown by another educational organization, the property will go up for sale to the private sector through an online liquidity services marketplace.

In other H-SCDSB news from Wednesday’s meeting, it came down to pulling straws to choose longtime trustee Lindsay Liske to be named board chair for 2019 after a tied vote between Liske and trustee Gary Trembinski.

Noting the tied vote, something which many H-SCDSB trustees and administrators had not seen before, Liske said “we’re divided” and called for reconciliation, stating board business is “not about an individual, it’s about the board.”

Liske has served as a trustee with the board for 21 years, and has previously served as board chair.

Trustee Sandra Turco was voted in as vice-chair, over trustee Leslie Cassidy-Amadio.

Turco has served as a board trustee since 2000.