Sudbury area parents protest planned school closures

Morning North7:45Rallying together to save local schools

A petition supporting schools that could close in the Sudbury area has gathered hundreds of signatures. Felicia Fahey started the petition. She told us more about why she decided to take this on.Parents in several outlying communities of Greater Sudbury are coming together to protest the proposed closure of a number of schools in the area, and they're looking for support online.

Budget constraints have led the Rainbow District School Board to consider shuttering as many as 12 schools by 2019 in communities such as Lively, Chelmsford and Dowling.

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"It's not about one specific school in particular," said parent Felicia Fahey, who started an online petition to save those schools.

"It's the premise that children do better when they're at a closer-knit school where they're not travelling upwards of two, three, four hours per day to get a five hour education."

As of Tuesday morning, about 350 people had signed the petition.

Decision expected in January, 2017

Officials with the Rainbow District School Board have said that nothing has been decided yet, and that public meetings to collect feedback will be held in October.

For people in some of Sudbury's outlying areas that have already lost community schools, the prospect of further closures isn't sitting well.

"Our kids aren't going to get the experience of what we did when we grew [up]," said Pamela McCracken, who graduated from Levack District High School before it closed back in 2001.

"They're not going to have those extracurriculars that universities are looking for."

McCracken added that smaller communities shouldn't lose any more schools.

A final decision from the rainbow board is expected in January, 2017.

See the petition here