WESTVILLE – Councillors for the town of Westville are upset but not surprised with news that the Chignecto Central Regional School Board has narrowed options for Highland Consolidated to two – both of which would see the school close for good.
“We felt that was going to be the outcome all along,” said councillor Lynn MacDonald.
But the town in their own way is still fighting to keep the school open.
“The town owns that building and we have advised the school board we want it returned in useable condition,” MacDonald said.
The school became part of the Chignecto Central Regional School Board when school boards were merged, but will revert back to the ownership of the town if the school board says they no longer have a use for it.
“It has to be a building we can use, not a sick building,” she said.
She said the town council has notified the school board in writing of that decision.
Students were removed from Highland Consolidated during the last school year after students and staff started experiencing symptoms believed to be caused by something in the building.
The students finished off the year at NSCC campus in Stellarton and then were moved to W.A. MacLeod for this year.
Air quality tests have consistently shown everything is within the right levels and any tests to determine the source of an odour believed to be causing the sickness has been inconclusive, although there have been several factors picked that could be contributing factors, including a problem with the roof and some housekeeping issues such as garbage stuffed in radiators.
More than $300,000 has been spent investigating the problem and an estimated $1.5 million would need to be spent to address the issues outlined, the school board has said.
Mayor Roger MacKay said the town has received no reports on what is actually wrong with the building or what work has been done at the school and wants to know more information.
“We’ve got to try to get some answers on what the reasons are on why they are shutting it down,” he said.
School board representative for Westville and Stellarton Ron Marks can empathize with the council’s frustration.
“That’s one of the problems is there is no exact problem,” he said. “They have found four things that may contribute to it. They’re relatively confident that if they did the work there may not be a problem. What we continue to hear, though, is that we cannot guarantee that we can solve the problem.”
The school board has to weight whether it’s worth risking spending 1.5 million to try to remediate the building or if it’d be better to spend the money fixing up other schools to accommodate the students.
“Do you want to spend 1.5 million dollars and then find that the children and the teachers still can’t operate within that school without getting the symptoms they had prior to leaving?” he questioned. “It’s a catch 22.”
That’s why the committee has recommended the board close the school.
He is aware that the Town of Westville wants the building back in usable condition, but said he wasn’t sure whether the school board would legally have to return it in that state.
“I do know that we return schools and they immediately get torn down,” he said.
He estimates it will cost between $3 million and $4 million to fix up the other schools to accommodate the needs of the students who previously went to Highland if they went with the option of updating the three elementary schools that feed it into P-8 schools.
amacinnis@ngnews.ca
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Highland Consolidated
Built: 1965
Closed: April 17, 2012, due to odour and mould complaints
Capacity: 510
2012 Enrolment: 255
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