Anglophone East School District To Consider Options For West End Schools

The Superintendent for Anglophone East issued an update to parents this week,  on the west end school situation.

When the Conservative government was elected, a new west end school to replace Bessborough and Hillcrest was put on hold.

Gregg Ingersoll says with two aging schools that are both in need of capital repairs, they need to reconsider their options, “Hillcrest enrolment is going down so they have room for more students to be in their school. Bessborough is going up. so if they are all going to be in one school in a couple of years anyway, we thought we would start looking at how we can reconfigure to make the best use of the space while we wait for a new school.”

Ingersoll says the first step is to consult with the provincial government to find out what their plans are with the west end school.

“Really what we are talking about is where classes would be located, in which building. We just need to have that done to do our staffing. It is potentially possible to do that for September, but we will only do that if it is the best case scenario,” Ingersoll says.

If the school remains on hold, Ingersoll says they’ll consult with parents and principals to find out if there are efficiencies that can be made..

“If it is better for everyone that we make changes, then we will do that. If it isn’t going to be better, and it is not worth our while, then we won’t. We at least want to have a discussion about it,” Ingersoll says.

The issue was also brought up at last night’s District Education Council meeting.

Norval McConnell says they need to know the details of the new provincial budget sooner rather than later, “I asked the government to know the specifics of that budget, because we have to make a decision about those schools moving forward.”

We reached out to the Education Minister for comment. In an emailed response, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development said, “The overall Capital Budget has been announced for 2020-21 and details of that budget will be announced in the near future. The department continuously works with partners to ensure existing infrastructure provides a safe and healthy work and learning environment.”