PC Leader Jamie Baillie has waded into the Park View – Bridgewater school review.
Baillie says the decision to move grades 10-12 students from Bridgewater to Park View was made even before the review committee was struck.
“To me, this is one of those examples of the government having already decided what it wants to do and then going through a pretend consultation process to get to that result.”
He says the school review process was never intended to review two families of schools at the same time.
Baillie says he applauds the efforts of the people of Bridgewater who opposed sending students to Park View.
He say he believes the findings of the review were selective.
“It was cherry picked in this case to get to a pre-determined outcome which would have been very unfair to Bridgewater Junior-Senior High.”
He says he’s concerned the decision has been delayed but not stopped in its tracks.
Baillie says that people know that if the government makes a decision on where it wants to go, they will eventually get there.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Karen Casey says the province has no input into those discussions and doesn’t know what Baillie is talking about.
Casey says people have asked that decisions on school closures be made at the community level.
“The school review process makes it very clear that the decision is the decision of the school board and that cannot be overturned by the Minister.”
She says her department will offer support to school boards if they request it but have no influence on the board or its decisions.
