Thorold Secondary closure 50/50

By Stephen Dyell

What's On Thorold

Then there were two.

Four hours of meetings between members of Accommodation Review Committee were completed Thursday night as it narrowed Thorold Secondary down to one option.

The committee went over the pros and cons of a list that had been expanded beyond the previous four listed at the last meeting. As members of each community spoke and eventually voted down to a list of six.

While the committee was hoping to find one perfect option to bring to the District School Board of Niagara meeting, they agreed in another vote to leave two options allowing one with West Park open and also one with Thorold Secondary.

Option one states that Kernahan Park and West Park will be closed. Kernahan would then merge into St. Catharines Collegiate and also altering the boundary for Collegiate and Sir Winston Churchill. This leaves Thorold Secondary open changing the boundaries around Sir Winston as well to increase enrolment.

Option two puts Kernahan Park into St. Catharines Collegiate. Thorold Secondary would then merge into Sir Winston ultimately closing Thorold. French Immersion would move from Sir Winston to West Park.

Options that included the closure of three schools were quickly taken off the board while others were seen as not a great fit for either party within the discussion.

This report will be used for the overall board decision but will be discussed in an upcoming meeting on March 1st which citizens will be able to voice their opinions on the two remaining.

The two options were also suggested to allow for changes in each option but the committee voted against resulting in the two being unchanged moving forward.

More on the reaction of the options to come tomorrow.