Halifax area schools could face review to determine which might close

A review could soon get underway lookingat the long-term outlook for 17schools in Cole Harbour, Eastern Passage and on the Halifax peninsulaan analysis that could lead to recommendations that some close.

The Halifax Regional School Board will vote at its Dec. 16 meeting on which schools will be reviewed, but school board staff are recommending more than a dozen located in three areas delineated as "families" of schools.

In some cases, enrolments have declined. In others, the buildings are old and need expensive repairs.

The schools are:

Citadel High Schoolfamily of schools:

• Joseph Howe Elementary
• Oxford School
• St. Joseph's-Alexander McKay Elementary
• St. Stephen's Elementary
• Highland Park Junior High

Eastern Passage High School (to open September2018) family of schools:

• Eastern Passage Education Centre
• Seaside Elementary
• Ocean View Elementary
• Tallahassee Community School

Cole Harbour District High School family of schools:

• Cole Harbour District High
• Ross Road School
• Sir Robert Borden Junior High
• Atlantic View Elementary
• Colonel John Stuart Elementary
• George Bissett Elementary
• Nelson Whynder Elementary
• Robert Kemp Turner Elementary

In 2014, Premier Stephen McNeil's governmentchanged the way underused schools areclosed in Nova Scotia, marking the third time in less than a decade that the review process had been revamped.

School boards are no longer able to review individual schools for closure. Instead, they must look at families of schools and come up with long-term regional plans for their facilities.

Some parents in the Cole Harbour family of schools are concerned elementary and junior highschools in thearea are being drained of students who are being diverted into the Eastern Passage family of schools.

Tonight at 7 p.m., there is a meetingat Auburn High Schoolwhere parents cantalk about their concerns with the review.