Uncertainty surrounding the province's attempts to rein in a $16-billion deficit played a role in a decision by the Rainbow District School Board not to conduct anymore accommodation reviews for the next two years.
Trustees with the board voted in favour of putting the moratorium in place at their Jan. 31 meeting.
Accommodation reviews look at how school boards can reduce surplus space and improve programming in their schools. They sometimes lead to schools being closed.
An accommodation review process in 2010 resulted in Rainbow board trustees voting to close Long Lake Public School and Wanup Public School.
The school board's director of education, Norm Blaseg, said he had a number of reasons for bringing forward this recommendation.
One reason is the “uncertainty” created by the upcoming Don Drummond report, which will recommend ways the provincial government can balance its books, he said.
“There has been no explanation how that is going to affect schools, although we do feel that there is going to be a number of pieces that will affect us,” Blaseg said.
As well, contracts with teachers' unions across the province expire Aug. 31.
In the past, there's been high-level discussions between the unions and the province before local negotiations, but there hasn't been any indication as to whether these discussions will take place this time, Blaseg said.
Rainbow board staff are also busy overseeing several construction projects, and don't really have time to undertake another accommodation review, he said.
“We only have so many racehorses, and they're all out of the barn,” Blaseg told trustees.
Construction is underway at R.L. Beattie Public School, Sudbury Secondary School and Algonquin Road Public School, with construction slated to start on the new MacLeod Public School this spring.
“When you go through an accommodation review process, you have to go through an analytical piece that is driven by certain personnel within your board,” Blaseg said.
“When you direct all of their energies in that area, it's got to detract from what their core business is.”
Trustee Judy Hunda said she was uncomfortable with the idea of a two-year moratorium on accommodation reviews, and asked for a friendly amendment to make it a one-year moratorium instead. This motion was later defeated.
“I think it's common knowledge to everyone right now, with the economy the way it is right now, stability is really hard to come by,” she said.
“I was thinking that hopefully status quo is maintained. Hopefully, we'll come here next year and not be looking at a budget that's going to require us to make some significant changes to programming or things that are going to impact on students.”
Blaseg told trustees they are able to rescind the motion for the two-year moratorium on accommodation reviews in the future if two-thirds of them vote to do so.
Trustee Robert Kirwan proposed a three-year moratorium. Holding off on reviews for three years is appropriate because it fits with the timeline in the board's current multi-year strategic plan, and prevents trustees running for election in the middle of an accommodation review, he said.
Blaseg cautioned that there have been recent changes made to the board's accommodation review process to make them run the length of the school year.
If Kirwan's idea was put into place, the board would actually have to wait more than three and a half years before the next accommodation review, he said.
In the end, though, the trustees voted 7-1 in favour of the two-year moratorium on accommodation reviews.
Board chair Doreen Dewar said she's “very supportive” of this move.
“I think it's an obligation we have to our staff, to the parents and to the entire community to say 'Barring any major changes or impact, we will not have a review over the next two years,'” she said.
“I also feel that when it comes as a recommendation from the director, I feel confident that they have already taken a very close look at the pros and cons, probably more so as I can as a trustee.”
Posted by Arron Pickard
