School closures are temporarily on hold across Ontario, but that does not mean local school boards have to stay silent on the possibility of shutting some down.
The possibility of school closures in Chatham-Kent was at the centre of a recent "Thoughtexchange" project conducted by the Lambton Kent District School Board.
The survey asked for public feedback about possible school closures in Blenheim, Tilbury, Ridgetown, and south Chatham.
Superintendent of Education Gary Girardi says they got a lot of good responses from the community.
"We were trying to find a pathway to talk to the communities prior to any kind of initial staff report and the community responded very well," says Girardi. "We believe we got some very good information to look at and also to share."
The board received responses from 748 participants, which Girardi says is a "strong participation given the population and comparing it to other 'Thoughtexchange' processes with similar-sized populations."
The top concerns from respondents to the survey were about mixing age groups with a new K-12 facility in Option 1 and travel time for students if rural schools are going to be closed in Option 2.
Option 1 involves closing schools in Harwich, Ridgetown, and Blenheim and building a new Kindergarten to Grade 12 school on either the Blenheim District High School site or at the Harwich Raleigh Public School site.
Several respondents reviewing that option believe that "a Kindergarten to Grade 12 school would have too many students" and that "the idea of mixing all age groups is not appealing."
Option 2 involves closing schools in Tilbury, Ridgetown, Blenheim, and south Chatham and building a Grade 9-12 secondary school at a site to be determined.
The top responses for that option involved concerns about transportation/distance for students to travel and the effect it would have on students' extra curricular activities and afterschool jobs.
Neither of those options are able to move ahead at this point, though.
The Ministry of Education is currently reviewing the pupil accommodation review guidelines and until that review is complete, publicly-funded schools in Ontario cannot start formal talks about school closures.
You can find a link to the results of the 'Thoughtexchange' project by clicking here.
