Whitbourne Elementary closure saga continues with public meeting in St. John's

The English School District's Board of Trustees tabled a motion to close Whitbourne Elementary in June 2017 at ameeting in St. John's on Wednesday.

It's just the latest turn in a roller coaster ordealfor parents, who now have another year of fighting aheadif they want to keep their children in the classrooms at Whitbourne Elementary.

• Whitbourne Elementary closure battle not over yet, parents vow to keep fighting

The school was originally slated to close this year, with a plan to bus students to Woodland Elementary in Dildo. However, parents fought the closure in court, where a judge shot down the board's decision to close the school.

• Vote to close Whitbourne Elementary quashed by judge

At Wednesday's meeting at theDistrict Conference Centre on Strawberry Marsh Road in St. John's,the boardpresented another motion to close the school, which it will vote on Sept. 20.

On Wednesday, theboard gave parents and other stakeholders access to alldocuments and information that it felt was required for a closure decision to be made, which was something that hadn't been properlydone before and resulted inthe judge to quash the closure just 10 days before in court.

Friction and frustration

The meeting seemed to get off on a contentious note, with one parent interruptingBoard chairMilton Peach during introductions by saying "whatever, get on with it," to which Peach replied by asking to keep the meeting professional.

"Wipe that smile off your face too," the man shot back.

WandaCumby, whose son goes to the school, said after the meeting she doesn't want to see a school with such a good special needs program be shut down.

"This is crazy, I don't know what they're doing. Our school is viable, our school has numbers," she said.

"My son has disabilities, he's going to have to be on a bus for, not 65 minutes like they are telling you, but more like an hour and 25 minutes. For a four-year-old in kindergarten, that's a long run."

Colin Ralph has one child in the school already and another set to start kindergarten in the fall, and said his biggest frustration with the whole ordeal is the timing of it.

"Tendays after a Supreme Court judge rules in our favour to keep Whitbourne Elementary open, noting serious flaws in their school review process, here we are," he said.

"It makes you wonder. I feel the board are just trying to get this done before they get booted out."

Saving money, improving services

Milton Peach, chair of the English School Districtresponded by saying he gets why people don't want to see Whitbourne Elementary close.

"Whenever you go to close a school there's always emotion and we as a board respect and understand that those emotions run high," he said.

"However we have a capacity issue in that area in that all those students could easily be part of one school."

Peach saidby combining the two schools the school districtcan pool resources and money, and he saidinfrastructure issues such as Woodlandhaving an upgraded electrical system are also factors.

"At the end of the day we have 80-plus students at Whitbourne and 180-plus at Woodland,and so putting them together still doesnot make a big school," he said.

"But in our view it increases the educational opportunities for students, and because of that we felt we need to move forward."