Province Schedules School Closure Meetings

Consultations will be held in the fall to provide parents, students, school boards and communities an opportunity to have input into the review of the current school closure process.

The review is being undertaken to ensure that the school closures process continues to meet the needs of students, the education system and communities.

Last spring, the Minister of Education asked school boards to postpone any school closure studies that were underway, pending a review of the regulations.

"Our government promised Nova Scotians that we would review the school closure process to determine if it meets the needs of communities large and small," said Karen Casey, Minister of Education.

The review will be co-chaired by Norma Kennedy, former chair of the Halifax County-Bedford District School Board and the Halifax Regional School Board, and Mike MacDougall, former principal of Judique, Creignish Consolidated School.

The Department of Education has posted a discussion paper to help support the dialogue on its website www.ednet.ns.ca .

The public meetings will be held in the following communities, between 7 p.m and 9 p.m.:

• Tuesday, Sept. 12 - Sherwood Park Education Centre, Sydney
• Wednesday, Sept. 13 - Strait Area Education-Recreation Centre, Port Hawkesbury
• Thursday, Sept. 14 - Cobequid Educational Centre, Truro
• Monday, Sept. 18 - Berwick and District School, Berwick
• Tuesday, Sept. 19 - Maple Grove Education Centre, Yarmouth
• Monday, Oct. 2 - Amherst High School, Amherst
• Tuesday, Oct. 10 - Duncan MacMillan High School, Sheet Harbour
• Wednesday, Oct. 11 - École du Carrefour, Dartmouth (CSAP)
• Thursday, Oct. 12 - Dartmouth High School, Dartmouth
• Tuesday, Oct. 17 - Bridgewater Junior-Senior High School, Bridgewater

The Department of Education will advertise the time and location of the meetings in daily and weekly newspapers across the province during the first week of September. This information will also be available on the website at www.ednet.ns.ca and from school board offices and school principals after the advertisements are published.

Written submissions may be mailed to: Nova Scotia Department of Education Corporate Policy Branch, School Closure Review, P.O. Box 578, Halifax NS B3J 2S9, e-mailed to [email protected] or faxed to 902-424-0519 until midnight on Tuesday, Oct. 31.