Board keeps school closure process going

Trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board went ahead with a meeting Monday night to discuss closing schools, even though the province has declared a moratorium on closures.

The Ottawa board and many parents don't seem ready to believe the province's edict.

"I'm still concerned until they make a final decision on this," said Catherine Young, whose children attend the threatened Glen Cairn Public School.

"Politicians make promises all the time and don't come through on them. So until a final decision is made, we're still pushing for all we can."

Trustee Riley Brockington says one reason for doubt is the ambiguous nature of the moratorium.

He hopes to get answers about what exactly it means when he meets Tuesday with Education Minister Gerard Kennedy.

"We're uncertain at the moment as to whether a full moratorium has been called where we cannot close any schools, or whether we still have the ability to close schools when we have the consensus of the community," said Brockington.

Margaret Lang, who chaired Monday's meeting, said she understood Gerard Kennedy to say closures could go go ahead when there was community consensus.

However, she acknowledged that concept is fraught which difficulty and could lead to a whole new round of argument.

"I think we'll have lots of debate on community consensus and what it means," said Lang.

Entwined with the school closure issue is funding, something that Kennedy will be asked to address when he meets trustees Tuesday.

They'll want to know how he can order boards to keep schools open without giving them any more money, or perhaps allowing them to run a deficit budget.