Lester B. Pearson may reopen debate into closing schools

Lester B. Pearson School Board commissioners will vote on whether to reconsider their decision to close two schools Monday.

There's some hope for parents trying to save Lakeside Academy and Riverview Elementary.

On Monday, the Lester B. Pearson School Board will vote on whether to reconsider their decision to close the schools – new information has come forward that could have affected the original decision to close the schools.

In December, the school board voted to shut down Lakeside Academy and bus the students to LaSalle Comprehensive and Lindsay Place High School in Pointe Claire.

They also voted to close Riverview Elementary, sending those students to Verdun Elementary. Both schools were operating at less than 50 per cent capacity.

Parents immediately mobilized to try and save the schools, starting a petition that now has around 1,500 signatures.

At the meeting, a commissioner is going to argue that the international program is not the same at the schools where the students are being transferred. First the other commissioners have to decide to revisit their initial decision, explained board chair Suanne Stein Day.

“We will debate the information that's been found and if the commissioners vote to reopen the resolution, then we will go back to the original resolution from Dec. 14 [to close and merge schools] as if we've never considered it before but with all the information that we've had and any new information that's available to us,” she said.

If that happens there would be a second vote on whether to close the schools.

Stein Day says she doesn't know which way the vote will go, but parents of both schools are hopeful.