In its fight to keep Yarker Family School open, Stone Mills Township has the support of Lennox and Addington County council.
At its regular meeting last night, council unanimously passed a motion to back Stone Mills’ formal request to Minister of Education Mitzy Hunter to block the Limestone District School Board’s planned closure of the Kindergarten to Grade 4 school in Yarker. This June, LDSB voted to close the school by the end of the upcoming school year following a contentious pupil accommodation review process that began in October 2016.
Stone Mills Deputy-Reeve John Wise put the motion on the floor during the ‘matters of urgency’ section of council’s regular meeting, citing a letter from the minister outlining the provincial government’s decision to hold off on future school closures until the Ministry of Education completes a full review the pupil accommodation review process. The same announcement, however, also states that the ministry wouldn’t be taking a second look at boards’ decisions to close schools made under the current process.
“Our citizens have asked Stone Mills Township to notify the government that we believe that decision should be reversed since (the decision to close the school) should have been made in context of planning for the future of all schools, rather than cherry pick out of context,” Wise said in forwarding the motion.
“I would ask this council to support Stone Mills Township in asking the minister to authorize and direct school boards to reverse decisions on school closures that have been made through this current process until such time as this review is complete,” he continued.
County council unanimously supported the motion, without debate.
All the schools in Stone Mills, along with Selby Public School in Greater Napanee, have been identified for possible closure; Yarker Family School was the only school to be subject to a pupil accommodation review process and pegged for closure. After its closure in June 2018, its students would be redirected to Odessa Public School.
Even before the province announced that it would be reviewing the pupil accommodation process, the LDSB indicated that it would be holding off on starting any new pupil accommodation review discussions until 2019/20.