School closings have become increasingly common around B.C., but the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school board is bucking the trend, opting to reopen a facility that shut its doors last year.
The board voted 6-3 this week to bring Cedar Secondary School back into service in 2016, a move that is being applauded by a citizens group called Save Cedar Schools.
“It’s a pretty unique situation,” said spokesman James Tripe.
“When the previous board decided to close the school back in 2013, a group of parents got together and decided we wanted to do something about that, try and reverse that decision in some way.”
The school closed in June 2014.
This year, up to 60 students are being bused to John Barsby Secondary in Nanaimo, while about 250 have chosen to attend Ladysmith Secondary, where busing hasn’t been covered, although it’s expected to be funded next year.
Tripe said high-school students were bused into Nanaimo a number of years ago, and Cedar Secondary was built to change that.
“The board at the time, district at the time, wanted that high school in that area specifically so these kids didn’t have to go to Nanaimo.”
Opposition to the Cedar Secondary closing culminated with three Save Cedar Schools members running for the school board in last November’s elections. All three were voted in.
“So we basically became the people that made the decisions,” Tripe said.
Board chairman Steve Rae, one of the group members to win a seat, said the school’s reopening is good news for the community and the district.
“This was a contentious issue, but the board felt that it was the right thing to do going forward,” he said.
Tripe said closing Cedar Secondary, with space for 450 students, was part of a larger project.
The original plan was to convert the high school into an elementary school, and consolidate the existing primary and intermediate schools into the school, Tripe said.
As well, closing Cedar Secondary — which was at 107 per cent of capacity — was seen as a way to increase attendance at other district high schools, Rae said.
Renovation work was started at the secondary school, but it has been stopped.
Getting the building back to a high-school layout and completing other preparations will continue into the fall term this year, so the school won’t reopen until 2016.
“We felt we did not want to disrupt students in the middle of the year, so we decided to leave it until the following year,” Rae said.
