Port Hawkesbury area school system under review

A steady decline in student enrolment is forcing a Cape Breton school board to make a difficult decision.

For years now, the Strait Regional School Board has been experiencing adrop in student numbers in the Port Hawkesbury area.

The Strait Area Education and Recreation Centre (SAERC), a Grade9 to 12 school, is running at 53 per cent capacity with projected enrolment to take another big drop.

Numbers are expected to decline from the current student population of 333,down to 200 over the next 10 years.

Its feeder schools, Tamarac Education Centre and Mulgrave Memorial Education Centre, are also looking at a significant decline in the number of students.

As a result, the school board has begun a course of action to deal with the hard reality.

Superintendent of the Strait Regional School Board, Ford Rice, said SAERC and its feeder system are undergoing a review a long-range outlook as required by the province.

Leading that review is a school options committee. The School Options Committee held a public meeting last Monday to explain where it stands in a detailed process that will see two more public sessions in the new year.

Excess space

A big concern right now, said Rice, is that all three schools have a lot of excess space due to declining enrolment.

Rice said board members "have to be strategic with the resources we have."

He explains that the SOC has just finished an examination into what will need to happen with SAERC and its two feeder schools.

"At the end of that process, as part of the parameters in the school options committee, is that one of those schools will be recommended for permanent closure," he said.

It will still be some time, however, before the committee makes that recommendation.

Meetings will he held, Rice said, likely in January, with the third and final one in March or April.

The SOC is required to submit its final report to the Strait Regional School Board no later than Apr.3.

The board will then begin deliberations toward a final decision, although Rice could not say exactly when that wouldtake place.