Changes to hub school rules may be coming, says Education Minister

Nova Scotia's Minister of Education Karen Caseyappears ready to revisit to rules the province set two years ago that school boards use to determine whether to create a hub school.

A hub school is a building that shares public school classrooms with organizations, public or private, that rent space. The idea is to save underused schools by making them community hubs with other uses.

Bar too high?

Communities have fileda number of proposals for hub schools, but school boards have rejected every one of them. Thelatest refusal wasthis week by the Tri-County Regional School Board to turn Digby Neck Consolidated School into one.

Ahub school's school activity cannot be negatively impacted by any group orbusiness sharing the space, and the school must pay its own way without beinga drain on board finances.

Some have complained the bar is set too high for any proposal to be successful.

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Guidelines to be reassessed

Casey appears ready to accept that view.

"As we work through other communities that may be interested in the hub, we have to look at the guidelines that we have and how workable they are," Casey said following a regularly scheduled cabinet meeting Thursday.

"We've not made any changes to those yet, but we certainly are looking at monitoring...what concerns people in communities may have with that."

'More beneficial and more workable'

Asked if she thought the current rules were functional, the minister responded, "I wouldn't have put them out if I didn't think they were realistic."

"However,once you start the implementation,then you look at, 'are there ways that we can make them more beneficial and more workable in the community?'" she said.

Casey hasn't set any timeline for making changes to the criteria.

"Whenever we get a concern,we certainly go back and look at it. We've not made any changes,but we're open to listening," she said.