World News
Parents ‘heartbroken’ after minister agrees to close Saint John school for good
After being saved twice before, the small Morna Heights School will officially close this summer.Morna Heights School will be officially closed on June 30, although it hasn’t seen any students since all New Brunswick were closed in March because of COVID-19. (Morna Heights School)After being saved twice before, the small Morna Heights School will officially…
After being saved twice before, the small Morna Heights School will officially close this summer.
After being saved twice before, the small Morna Heights School will officially close this summer.
Education Minister Dominic Cardy approved the district education council's recommendation to shutter the school this week.
On Monday, the families received a letter indicating the fight is over.
“It was very disappointing for my family,” said mother of two Elizabeth Edgar.
Edgar's eldest goes to kindergarten at the school in Morna Heights, on the northwestern edge of Saint John. She said he has diagnosed social anxiety, and he “really thrives in small areas.”
The school enrolment this year was 72 students.
Edgar said she's lived three minutes away form the school in Grand Bay-Westfield for 11 years. She said the school wasn't the reason she moved there, but it was the reason she and her family stayed.
Figuring out what to do next, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be difficult.
“It just makes it very complicated for us to find the best solution for our kids,” Edgar said.
“It's very disheartening that this is where we're at, with all of the other things that are going on currently, to have to figure out what's the best best path forward is for our kids.”
Cardy said giving the final approval for the closure wasn't easy,
“I feel really bad about this,” he said. “This is not something I wished would come to this particular point.”
But Cardy said he didn't see any technical flaw in the District Education Council's handling of the issue so didn't see a reason for him to intervene.
“There's been a tradition in New Brunswick of having district education council and other bodies of government make decisions that are going to be overturned by politicians at the provincial level for political reasons,” Cardy said.
“Given that the DEC's responsibilities are clearly to provide reports like this on whether or not they believe the schools should be kept open or not, it's really not something that I feel appropriate to just go beyond.”
Cardy has previously bypassed the Anglophone South district education council by approving a budget the council rejected in protest against underfunding for education assistants.
Anglophone South superintendent Zoë Watson said students of the K-5 school will either move to St. Rose School, Barnhill Memorial School or Island View Elementary.
The Anglophone South district education council voted to recommend the closure of Morna Heights School in February. The 9-2 vote took place after two public consultation meetings, and speeches from parents who oppose the closure.
The council said the school's declining enrolment and deteriorating infrastructure made it unsustainable. The school was built in 1963.
Council chair Rob Fowler previously said the school repair and maintenance estimate is around $1 million over the next 10 to 15 years.
The fact that the next time they go back to get [their] things would be their last time. It's really heartbreaking– Lisa Carter, parents committee
There were proposals to close Morna Heights in 2011 and again in 2015. Fowler said the first time, Morna was one of multiple schools that were slated to close so the province could build a new school. That plan fell through.
The second time, the district education council recommended closing Morna and a few others, but the population numbers had dwindled again to the point where the province couldn't justify a new school.
“I think the reality is we have to do something, we have to do it now, and that's why we were faced with a decision that was made,” Fowler said.
A community hub
Leslie McKinley was part of the founding members of the Save Morna Heights Committee since 2011. She said the roller-coaster they've been on has been stressful, and she's disappointed as well.
“We're heartbroken for our community and we're heartbroken for the kids at Morna because during this it's going to be hard for them, to have that much of a transition with this being pandemic,” she said.
“It's going to be a challenge for the students parents and staff as well.”
She said the school is “the heart of the community.”
“We have lots of events that run. It brings us all together and everybody knows each other.”
Lisa Carter, chair of Morna Heights Parent School Support Committee, said she's worried about what the transition will be like for her nine-year-old son.
“I think current circumstances make it a little bit harder,” she said. “The fact that the next time they go back to get [their] things would be their last time. It's really heartbreaking.”
Watson said she knows families will have questions about the transitions, but because of COVID-19 restrictions, “information sessions for students and families are not able to happen.”
“The district will communicate with all of the principals involved, and we will keep families updated as we want to make this transition a smooth one for them,” she said in a statement.
Watson said that over the summer, the building is to be closed down, and equipment and materials that can be used by the other schools will be moved there. The building will remain with the district for a year, then become the property of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Permanent staff who work in the school will be reassigned to other positions, she said.
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