Dartmouth parents want school replaced, not closed

Parents of Prince Arthur Junior High School in Dartmouth have told the Halifax Regional School Board the school should be replaced, and not closed.

The schoolis one of fivein the board that are currently under review.

A meeting was held Monday night to discuss the possible closure of Prince Arthur. Parents and community members say the possibility of sending students to Bicentennial Junior High is not acceptable.

Bicentennial serves primary to Grade 9students.

The school board mayalso recommend moving the elementarystudents into a proposed newprimary to Grade6 school.

That didn't sit well with about 60 people who attended the meeting.

"Our community deserves that and I think to send everybody up to BiHi is too far to go and BiHi is probably only in marginally better shape than this school is," said parent Jill Brogan.

Several parents from Bicentennialsaid they wereconfusedas to why they were never consulted about the possibility of putting the two schools together.

"To me it's obvious that if we're going to have the population of our school double, plus it all be (grades)seven to nine, how are we not look at this negatively?" questionedJim Joyce, a parent and chairman forBicentennial's school advisory committee.

"It's a huge impact on us, plus the fact that we weren't part of the process, we weren't part of the discussions. It's all been just what we've been hearingthem making decisions and us hearing about them."

There would be public consultations with the Bicentennial School should they decide to go with that plan, according toIrvine Carvery, chairman of the school board.

The school board will make its decision on March 28.