Officials at the Thames Valley District School Board are now recommending Lorne Ave. Public School remain open through all of the 2015-2016 school year.
Lorne Ave. was initially slated to close this fall. However, a funding delay from the province pushed back the renovations at Bishop Townshend Public School. That school must be renovated to accommodate the students from Lorne Ave.
The original plan was to have work begin at Bishop Townshend last October in hopes of having the school ready for the start of the 2015 school year. Now, it will be February before the school is ready to take on the new students.
Parents were then told that grade 6,7 and 8 students from both Lorne Ave. and Bishop Townshend would be at Lorne Ave. between the fall start and February , while the younger grades would be sent to either Bishop Townshend or St. George's Public School, based on where they lived.
"There were a lot of issues surrounding families with students in senior and junior grades where they would have to be sending their kids to two different schools," says Scott McLean of the Save Lorne Ave. group. "Now, this allows them to have a single transition to the new school, instead of being split up and moved around multiple times."
Under the new report, those who were being sent to St. George's Public School will start there in the fall. Those who were slated to go to Bishop Townshend will remain at Lorne Ave. for the entire school year, then start school at Bishop Townshend in the fall of 2016.
The school board will discuss the report at Tuesday night's meeting.