Lakeside Academy, Riverview to stay open

Lester B. Pearson School Board commissioners voted Monday night not to closeLakeside Academy High School in Lachine.

The vote reverses an earlier council decision to close theschoolby June 30, 2016, due to declining enrolment.

School board chair Suanne Stein Day applauded community efforts to keep Lakeside Academy open and the "sustainable solutions" that movement put forward.

"We worked so hard the last seven monthsand it's the best news I could have ever gotten," said Jennifer Park, a parent of two Lakeside studentswho spearheaded the Save Lakeside campaign.

"Our hard work paid off and it's more than anything I could have ever imagined."

School board commissioners also voted Monday toreverseits earlier decision to closeVerdun'sRiverviewElementary School.

• Lakeside Academy closing, 8 Lester B. Pearson elementary schools merging
• Lakeside Academy, Riverview parents, students have high hopes for schools' survival

The December 2015 decision to close Lakeside Academysparked adetermined campaign by parents and citizens opposed to the closure and won the school a one-year reprieve in late January 2016.

School board commissioners wereoriginally scheduled to revisit the proposed closure of Lakeside Academy in December 2016, but Save Lakesidecampaign organizersrequested to have the voteheld sooner.

Park, who has two children in grade eight at the school, said an earlier vote wouldallow the campaignto move aheadwith planssuch assharingthe school's facilities with community organizations or put an end to them.

"Because of the uncertainty, you can't very well move forward with those types of talks with those organizations without knowing," she said.

She thankedfor school board for its willingness to collaborate with parents in their efforts to save the school.

"Enrolment is dwindling in the English community and it's in the best interests of everyone to work together," she said.

"It's about sitting and communicating...it was really refreshing to have that partnership with [the school board]."