Parents and students of Sacred Heart, St. Paul, O’Gorman Intermediate (OICS) and O’Gorman High School (OHS), you don’t have to make alterations for the 2016-17 school year.

That’s the main message from Northeast Catholic District School Board (NCDSB) Director of Education Glenn Sheculski.

He says while the Accomodations Review is underway on those four schools (as well as the ACCESS Centre on Birch Street and the board office on Spruce South), nothing will take effect in the following school year.

There are five options being looked at right now, all of which include the closure of Sacred Heart School.

Sheculski says that doesn’t mean the school (first built in the late 30’s) is guaranteed to shut down.  He says there could be options that make use of the building.

Another option is even looking at government funding for a brand new school, and demolishing the ACCESS Centre (old Queen Elizabeth School across the street from St. Paul), but that is out of the board’s hands.

Others include:

  • expanding OHS for Grade 7-12 and OICS would see kindergarten to Grade 6 programming move in
  • turning OICS to a kindergarten to Grade 8 French immersion school; English Grade 7-8 to St. Paul School
  • expanding St. Paul to accomodate English and French kindergarten to Grade 6
  • English and French kindergarten to Grade 3 at St. Paul; English and French Grade 4-6 at OICS
  • keep everything the same as it is now

Ultimately, Sheculski says they’re “looking to the future, and trying to do the best in terms of programming and offering the best in Catholic education for our students, and yet, making sure that we’re working with the budgetary dollars the Ministry (of Education) provides us.”

A decision is to be presented to the board and a decision isn’t expected until May or June of this year.