Catalina, Swift Current, Colliers schools to stay open

The trusteesof the Eastern School District have voted to keep Swift Current Academy,Catalina Elementary, and Immaculate Conception inColliers open, but they have voted for Whitbourne Elementary and Epiphany Elementary in Heart's Delight to be closed.

Emotions ran high at the board's public meeting in Spaniard's Bay on Thursday evening, as hundreds of anxious parents and community members waited to hear the fate of their schools.

For Catalina residents, Thursday night's vote was a glimmer of hope for what some considered a dying community.

"It means that our town will survive," said Rhonda McNamara, who travelled from Catalina to Spaniard's Bay for the meeting. "Because if that school had closed, our town would not have survived," she said.

The vote was also a victory for parents of students at Swift Current Academy, who had argued that an hour-long bus ride from Swift Current to schools in Clarenville would be too long for students.

Whitbourne and Heart's Delight dealt blow

But the vote did not go in favour for residents of Whitbourne and Heart's Delight.

Board trustees voted for Whitbourne Elementary and Epiphany Elementary in Heart's Delight to be closed.

Lloyd Gosse, the mayor of Whitbourne, said with more young families moving to his community due to jobs at a mega-project at nearby Long Harbour, the decision to close the school made no sense.

"One government department putting all kinds of infrastructure in the town, supporting us a hundred per cent and then another government department taking the guts out of it by taking the school," said Gosse.

Board says review of other schools will continue

The Eastern School District said it won't be long before more schools may be on the chopping block.

Board Chair Milton Peach said itis still reviewing the viability of other schools.

"It becomes challenging when we have small populations with a larger than normal allocation of teachers that we don't get in our urban parts," Peach said.

"That becomes challenging from an administrative point of view and from our officials who run our district for us."

Peach said that money was not a factor when the board made its decision, but there is a cost saving whenever there is downsizing.

He said that in the new year, the board will be looking at issues in the Mount Pearl area, as well as on the Burin Peninsula.