West Niagara high schools to close
With a population poised to exceed 30,000 in the next 20 years, West Lincoln is among the fastest growing communities in Niagara.
Although District School Board of Niagara based its decision to close South Lincoln High School at the end of this school year on dwindling enrollment, West Lincoln Mayor Doug Joyner said the decision was shortsighted.
“It’s never nice to lose your only high school in your municipality. A lot of people are very upset about the outcome,” Joyner said.
It’s one of three west Niagara schools the board voted to close at its meeting Tuesday night.
Beamsville District and Grimsby secondary schools are slated to close in June 2020.
All three schools are to be replaced by a new centrally located school that is to be built and open by that September, pending provincial approval.
Grimsby-Lincoln trustee Cheryl Keddy-Scott said the expected growth of west Niagara communities was considered in the board’s decision, “but if we kept South Lincoln open for an additional year, in September the numbers would still fall under 200 (students).”
Declining enrolment at the three west Niagara secondary schools resulted in 1,100 empty desks combined. And those “surplus student spaces” receive no provincial funding but still cost the board money for utilities and maintenance.
“There were a lot of different scenarios that people came up with — kindergarten to Grade 12 and everything — but it still doesn’t retain our students,” she said.
Keddy-Scott said 35 per cent of collegebound students were enrolling in other school boards to take advantage of extra programming and extracurricular activities.
“We looked at the bigger picture here. We want to make sure all our students in all three communities are getting the best education, and that means we had to make some tough emotional decisions,” she said.
“We know that when those doors (of the new school) open in September 2020, we have made the right decision for all our students in all the communities,” she said. “I look forward to being there … and seeing the children’s eyes when they walk through those doors, knowing that they’re going to have the best education, programming and supports that they need to succeed in life. ”
Joyner said 50 to 60 students showed their disappointment by walking out of class at South Lincoln High School Wednesday morning, protesting the board’s decision a night earlier.
“Probably the biggest rub that we had with this whole accommodations review committee, is they were not using 2016 census numbers,” Joyner said. “They were using 2006 to 2011 census numbers.
“It was not explainable as to why they wouldn’t wait for 2016 census numbers to come out, and they wouldn’t wait until the region finished their municipal comprehensive review. I could not understand that.”
But Keddy-Scott said waiting for 2016 census numbers would not have changed the outcome.
The board’s plan will move South Lincoln High School students living in the College Street and Caistor Central areas to Grimsby Secondary in September, while students living in the Gainsborough Public School catchment area will be able to choose between attending E.L. Crossley in Pelham or Grimsby Secondary.
Keddy-Scott said the board will now start looking for a suitable location for the new school.
“We are committed to finding a location that is centrally located to ensure it is as equally accessible to all communities as possible,” she said.