No 2014 accommodation reviews for Rainbow

There won't be any accommodation reviews of the Rainbow District School Board's schools this year.

Trustees with the school board made the decision at their Jan. 28 meeting.

Accommodation reviews involve an often-controversial process where school boards seek input on reducing surplus space in schools.

They sometimes result in school closures, as was the case for the Rainbow board in 2010, when it voted to close Wanup Public School and Long Lake Public School.

The board did pass a motion in 2011 stating that it would consider holding accommodation reviews for its Espanola and Rayside Balfour-area schools sometime in the next three years.

But Blaseg said that won't happen, at least not right now.

“We're quite comfortable with the way things are,” he said.

The board is, however, considering changes at its Espanola schools, but doesn't need to hold an accommodation review to carry out those plans.

It plans to relocate the junior kindergarten to Grade 8 students who attend A.B. Ellis Public School to Espanola High School.

That's because the Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario (CSCNO) school Ecole secondaire catholique Franco-Ouest currently rents space at Espanola High School, but plans to vacate the space.

While trustees have voted to forgo any accommodation reviews this year, they did did make a few other decisions on Jan. 28 regarding the board's schools.

Based on a motion passed in 2011, Sudbury Secondary School was only supposed to retain its French Immersion program if there was at least 45 Grade 9 and 10 students enrolled in the program as of Oct. 31, 2013.

While the program didn't quite meet the threshold — it had 34 students on that date — Rainbow board trustees voted to continue Sudbury Secondary's French Immersion program.

“That's good news for Sudbury Secondary,” Blaseg said.

Trustees also voted to change some school boundaries, so that students in certain sections of the city will be eligible to attend either Lasalle Secondary School or Sudbury Secondary School.

The area encompasses the west side of Second Avenue North and the west side of Notre-Dame Avenue.

The west side of Notre-Dame Avenue includes Mitchell Street, Kent Court Road, Kent Street, O’Grady Street, Lorraine Street, Crescent Park Road, Gordon Avenue, Thomas Street, Patie Street, Paul Street, the section of Lasalle Boulevard between Notre-Dame Avenue and Collège Boréal, the section of Notre-Dame Avenue from Turner Avenue up to but not including Newgate, and Frood Road north of Turner Street.

The changes were made after a Rainbow board staff review of the boundaries over the past year.

Blaseg explains that because of the way the boundaries previously worked, some students were being separated from their friends from elementary school when they graduated and went to high school.

@heidi_ulrichsen