The new trustees with the Near North District School Board will have to make a tough decision shortly after taking office.
They have to decide when to close W.J. Fricker and Widdifield.
Board chairman Dave Thompson says the outgoing board voted 5-3 against a staff recommendation to close both schools in June 2020.
Thompson says the main reason is because the retiring trustees didn’t have enough information, especially how many students would be in what schools.
Thompson says at this time it’s still not known how many students will be at Fricker and Phelps which are the feeder schools for Widdifield.
By extension, that means the number of Widdifield students is also unknown.
“It’s a complicated process,” Thompson said.
He adds the outgoing trustees didn’t want to saddle the new board with a decision based on incomplete information.
“Basically, how many students will be left at Widdifield,” Thompson said.
“That’s the deciding factor. And we don’t know that yet because some students still have to determine course selections.”
Thompson says Widdifield has to close in a timely fashion so that it doesn’t create many stop gaps for students.
He says staff should have the student numbers sometime in the near future and that will make it easier for the new trustees to vote on the recommendation the outgoing trustees rejected.
The term for new trustees begins this Saturday.