Catholic schools in Amherstburg, west Windsor, Leamington up for review
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board has voted to review the future of schools in Amherstburg, west Windsor and Leamington.
In Amherstburg, the accommodation review committee will look at low enrolment at St. Bernard and Stella Maris Catholic elementary schools.
The board proposal that passed at a board meeting Tuesday night suggests St. Bernard close and its students be consolidated at Stella Maris school, at its current site.
The same review process will happen at west Windsor schools, including Assumption College high school and St. James and St. John elementary schools.
In Leamington, the future of Cardinal Carter Catholic secondary school and Queen of Peace and St. Louis Catholic elementary schools will be reviewed.
In the Windsor and Leamington situations, Grade 7 and Grade 8 students would move into middle schools, to be established at Assumption and Cardinal Carter high schools.
Board chair Barb Holland said the middle school model is new in the area but insisted it's a good thing for the students.
"It's one that is working really well. You've got JK-6 — those kids now have leadership opportunities. They have more things to do in a JK-6 model that are age appropriate, that are modeled just for them," she said. "And the same goes for the kids in the middle schools, in Grade 7 and 8. Again, it gives them an opportunity to have a little bit more freedom to learn how to make good, responsible decisions and take advantage of some of the programming in the high school."
A final decision could come by March 2016.
"We're looking at a decision in late March, and that gives us all of April, all of May and June to integrate the kids into their new school communities," Holland said. "It allows our staffs to mingle. It allows the kids to get to know each other, to get used to their new classrooms."
