Lively is growing — and closing its high school is a bad move: councillor

More than 50 residents in Lively, Ont. voiced their concerns at yesterday's Rainbow School Board input session — while others provided written feedback on their opposition to the proposed plan to close Lively District Secondary School.

That high school is one of 12 schools up for possible closure or consolidation as part of the English public school board's accommodation review.

• Rainbow School Board holds first input meeting
• Lively students tell Rainbow board 'save our school' at walkout

Grade 12 LDSS student Ryan Rouleau says the board isn't taking students' needs into consideration, particularly when it comes to getting to and from school daily.

He invited trustees to take a chartered bus ride to understand the extra time it would take to get to a different school if LDSS were to close down.

That chartered bus ride would begin on Chicago Mine Road and travel at least 45 minutes to Lively and then on to Lockerby Composite School.

Rouleau says that route is bumpy and has several spots prone to collisions.

"It's just a longer ride. And the longer the ride, there's always the more possibility something ... could go wrong. And we think it's unfair that our students have to be put through that risk, in order to go to a farther school," says Rouleau.

Board members have until Nov. 11 to respond to the invitation.

Impact on Walden Public School?

Parents who have children at nearby Walden Public School are also concerned about the accommodation review.

If LDSS closes, the Grade 7 and 8 students would be moved to the elementary school. And that represents roughly 100 extra students.

Richard Eberhardt represented the Walden Public School Council at the input session. He says the board hasn't presented [Walden] with a plan to deal with those changes.

"Moving the students from Lively to Walden was considered to be something that was essentially just a line in the plan, without any depth or detail. There's no funding set aside for that. There's no identification of the capitol impact on the school," Eberhardt told CBC News.

During the 2015 labour dispute with high school teachers, Walden temporarily took in the Grade 7 and 8 students. It was a short-term solution that was very disruptive to the elementary students at the time, Eberhardt said.

The Walden Public School Council published a report outlining impacts if the board follows through on its accommodation plans.

Lively's long-term demographics 

​Ward 2 Sudbury city councillor, Michael Vagnini calls the high school in Lively a community icon. He said he supports efforts to keep it open.

The Rainbow School Board should be looking at long term needs, he added, rather that short term solutions.

Vagnini says several big future developments are expected to help grow the Lively community in the next five years.

"If we close the school now, what are we going to do when this population explosion is happening? And that's where they're not looking at, they're not looking at the demographics and the demographic shift the way it's going in the Lively area."

As a member of the Greater Sudbury Police Services board, Vagnini says he plans to see if the Lively police store front could be moved to the high school. That would provide extra funding for the school board and could keep LDSS open.

The next accommodation review meeting will be held Thursday at 6 p.m., at the high school in Chelmsford, Ontario.

The board says public feedback will be accepted until mid November on the accomodation review's special website.