Lakehead Public Schools in Thunder Bay to keep Hammarsjkold, Superior high schools open

Trustees with Lakehead Public Schools voted Tuesday night to keep Thunder Bay's two public north-side schools open. Hammarskjold High School and Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute will stay open for the foreseeable future.

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This has "escalated feelings on both sides of the equation, and we are now at square one. So there is a lot of frustration at this point about what is going to happen," said Cheri Lappage, who was part of the group hoping to keep Hammarskjold as the sole north side school.

Trustees voted 7-1 to keep the schools open.

"I also have a lot of concern about the vote as it went because four of these trustees voted to build this school in the first place. They instituted a clear bias before you start. Of course they're going to want to support a school that they created," said Lappage.

Marg Arnone was the sole trustee to vote to close Superior Collegiate, and have all north-side high school students attend Hammarskjold as of next fall.

With the closure of Superior, "we're going to make everybody happy," she said, noting that the decision would please the Ontario Ministry of Education, which is no longer funding empty classroom spaces in schools around the province.

Staff have estimated keeping all the schools open is costing the Lakehead board $1.5 million per year.

The remaining seven trustees said no to the recommendation, stating that Superior was built as a high school, and should be used that way, an opinion shared by Cheryl Silen whose son attends Superior.

"I'm very relieved that Superior will be there for every student on the north side to take advantage for a long time in the future from the way it stands right now."

"I think there are lots of options that we didn't look at," Silen said, adding that the board can now go back to the drawing board, to find savings on the north side.

Trustees said they also had concerns about closing three neighbourhood elementary schools on the north side, and moving those students to Superior.

They were particularly concerned about St. James School, noting that it is the only 'inner-city school' on the north side, and that there are many community groups operating from the school.

"The schools [on the north side] will remain as they are, for now, and we will watch the process, and if we see any changes and we will possibly be addressing it down the road, but right now we're okay with leaving it as the status quo," said Deborah Massaro, the chair of the Lakehead Public Schools board.

The decision to keep both high schools open will however have ramifications on the budget process, which is expected to start soon.

"It certainly is going to make balancing our budget difficult, but I'm sure that we can come up with some solutions to make sure students get the education they deserve," said Massaro.

South side

Trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday night to close Churchill High School at the end of this school year, and move students to Westgate High School, a recommendation "we felt we could support because of the way it was designed," said Massaro.

The Churchill site would then become the home to a new elementary school, to house students currently attending Agnew H. Johnston and Edgewater Park public schools.

"The south side has not had a new facility for many years, and we're really hoping that's going to happen for them," said Massaro.

Trustees noted that there is no guaranteed funding yet to build the proposed new elementary school, and want to ensure there is some sort of backup plan if the province won't fund the new elementary school.

The new elementary school is slated to be open for the 2018-19 school year.