South Shore board OK's review of schools
The South Shore Regional School Board is mulling the future of several schools, including one on an island with just three students.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the board approved almost every recommendation of a consultant's report on whether schools are delivering education effectively. It has until April 2009 to decide what to do.
Supt. Nancy Pynch-Worthylake said the decision about Big Tancook Island Elementary School will be particularly difficult.
She said the trip from the island to a school in Chester on the mainland takes 50 minutes.
"The consultant's report was quite specific that that was not an attractive option for very young children. So that would be taken into account during the review," she said Friday.
Other schools on the list include:
- Lunenburg Junior-Senior High.
- Hebbville.
- Pentz.
- Petite Riviere.
- Newcombville.
- Centre Consolidated.
- Lunenburg Academy.
- Riverport.
- Greenfield.
- Milton Centennial.
Pynch-Worthylake said the schools could be shut down, reconfigured or left as is. Board staff will conduct a detailed analysis of each school before any decision is made, she added.
The board rejected the consultant's recommendation to review Mill Village Consolidated, saying the school had been reviewed only five years ago.