P.E.I. cabinet to discuss school closures

A recommendation from the Eastern School District to permanently close eight small schools in rural P.E.I. is on the agenda for the provincial cabinet Tuesday.

The school board made the recommendations at a public meeting Friday, but the cabinethas to make the final decision. Premier Robert Ghiz has long been on the record saying cabinet would support the school board's decision, which came after months of public consultation.

Monday on CBC Radio's Island Morning,Ghiz would not say cabinet would be getting out the rubber stamp.

"We're going to take a look at the recommendations. We'll have a discussion over it, around the cabinet table and then we'll be letting our decision be known," he said.

"Obviously I can't indicate exactly what cabinet's going to decide."

Before Friday's vote, Ghiz had been quick to stress that while the authority lay with cabinet, the decision was really in the hands of the school board.

"They will make a recommendation to cabinet, and there's a 99.9 per cent chance we're going to approve what those recommendations are unless we see something where there's a fault in the process," Ghiz told CBC News earlier this year.

That approach has also been emphasized by Provincial Treasurer Wes Sheridan.

"We're going to take the politics out of these kinds of decisions," Sheridan said in question period on April 8.

"Whatever the experts suggest to us is best, that's what we will enact. That's how we're going to act."

Whatever cabinet decides, the school board needs an answer soon. The schools are due to close at the end of this school, with their students going to new schools in September.

Moving plans begun

The school board is already moving ahead with plans to vacate the eight schools.

The board is working on a tight deadline for the move and district superintendent Sandy MacDonald hopes cabinet makes a final decision quickly. There are staffing issues and logistics to be worked out before school breaks for the summer.

Teachers and principals at the schools were asked months ago where they'd like to be transferred if the closures go ahead. Based on that, the district has come up with a staffing plan. MacDonald said most teachers want to follow their students.

"We'll be able to say, OK, here's Mount Stewart-Tracadie-St. Teresa's, here's where these teachers told us they want to go, here's where we think we can put them," said MacDonald.

"We can do the work fairly quickly. There'll be some bottlenecks, no doubt. If we have a surplus of teachers for Grade6 for example, we might have to say to someone, you know, we know other years you taught Grade 6, you might have to teach Grade5 this year."

In terms of moving furniture, equipment and books out of the schools, someone will be hired to do that, said MacDonald. They'll get the important things first, and they won't need to have everything moved before the start of the new school year.