Elizabeth Buckley School closing after 30 years

Citing a shortage of teachers, the independent Elizabeth Buckley School is closing its doors after 30 years in Victoria.

Both campuses, an elementary school with students from kindergarten through Grade 5 and a middle school with Grades 6 to 8, will be shut at the end of June. The elementary school is in the Cridge Centre for the Family, while the middle school is downtown in Nootka Court.

A total of 61 students attend the two locations.

The teacher shortage stems from a 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision that restored contract provisions dealing with class size and composition in B.C. public schools. That has led to a need for more classroom space, and more teachers, around the province.

Deciding to close the school has been “very difficult,” said vice-principal Roberta MacDonald.

The school began as a facility for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, but has since become home to a wide-ranging student population. It has a higher percentage of special-needs students than most other schools, MacDonald said.

“Our largest demographic of children with special needs in the school at this time are children on the autism spectrum,” she said.

“We have been meeting a need in the community, and it will be sad to lose that.”

The school was founded by Nancy Bourey, who named it for her grandmother — a teacher who opened a school in her New York home as a young widow.