School closures are on the agenda for Monday night's Chatham-Kent Council meeting.
East Kent councillor David VanDamme is bringing forward a motion that would direct Mayor Randy Hope and the rest of Council to play a bigger role in future talks about school closures -- particularly when those closures would have a negative "financial effect on the overall community."
"When you come from a small community, schools are undoubtedly one of the local hubs of the community," says VanDamme. "If you want to attract new people to come to small towns, you have to have viable, open schools."
VanDamme also wants the Mayor and Chatham-Kent council to lobby Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, the Minister of Education, and other provincial officials to "support small communities on the overall impact of school closures."
"It's so easy for us to say to the province or the school boards, 'This is your matter, you deal with it in the most effective way possible,'" says VanDamme. "It's bigger than that."
His motion follows a 'Thoughtexchange' online community engagement project that the Lambton-Kent District School Board (LKDSB) launched in March to get public feedback about possible school closures in Blenheim, Tilbury, Ridgetown, and south Chatham.
The first option the board asked community members to consider involved building a Kindergarten to Grade 12 school on either the Blenheim District High School site or the Harwich Raleigh Public School site.
In that scenario, the school board would close and relocate students from Harwich Raleigh PS, WJ Baird PS, Ridgetown District HS, and Blenheim District HS.
The second option includes building a Grade 9 to Grade 12 secondary school at a site that is yet to be determined.
That option would close and relocate students from Blenheim District HS, John McGregor HS, Ridgetown District HS, and Tilbury District HS. It would also relocate the grade 7 and 8 students from Ridgetown District HS to Naahii Ridge Public School and would close WJ Baird PS and relocate those students to Harwich Raleigh PS in Blenheim.
School board officials say consolidations may need to take place because there has been a 16% drop in enrollment over the last decade and that trend is expected to continue.
