The Town of Essex is looking to put the brakes on the Greater Essex County District School Board's accommodation review of five schools.
The town wants more time to weigh out a potential solution to keeping Harrow District High School open. According to Essex CAO Russ Phillips, the time is needed to explore the community hub model.
"When we start to look at the concept of a community hub, it would be using the school as a centre for not only education, but perhaps for meeting space, maybe a library, maybe the police station incorporated inside a facility, so rather than simply close a facility, there's an opportunity to re-purpose the space," says Phillips.
A letter from the town to the school board is to be sent Wednesday.
"If Harrow high school closes these students are going to have to be bused, transferred, or moved to another location. That takes them out of their community where they grow up, where they live," says Phillips. "It takes them to a new centre and a new experience and that's something we think is counterproductive."
The next meeting in the PARC process is April 13 at Western Secondary School. Recommendations have yet to be made as to any school closures of the five schools involved in the review.
