Lambton-Kent District School Board officials meet at Wallaceburg District Secondary School on October 6, 2015 (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)Lambton-Kent District School Board officials meet at Wallaceburg District Secondary School on October 6, 2015 (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)
Chatham

LKDSB Renting Empty Classrooms

Lambton-Kent District School Board officials are preaching community involvement as they plan on what to do with their empty classrooms.

The board is faced with over $188-million in back-logged school repairs and upgrades. With declining enrollment an ongoing issue, they're also getting less and less money from the province to fund these capital projects.

According to ministry rules, boards have to look for community partnership opportunities before discussing any consolidation or structure changes. So they're opening up some of their empty classrooms for public rentals.

Director of Education Jim Costello stresses they will make school security and safety one of their top priorities in this endeavour.

"It could be a series of doctors' offices or accounting firms, anyone doing office work. Just something that could partner with us and rent space, which they would have to pay a commercial rate for," he says.

Over the last ten years, the LKDSB has seen a 19% drop in enrollment, and their schools are currently operating at a 70% capacity.

Chair Scott Kinlay says the public has a great opportunity to help maintain facilities they themselves pay for.

"These buildings belong to the taxpayers, and the more we can utilize them the better off we are. But we can't continue to maintain some schools at 40-50% capacity, the government won't let us do that anymore," says Kinlay.

This year alone the LKDSB has closed around 100 classrooms. The board has made a shortlist of 14 schools that would be considered for rental usage first. These include Wheatley Central School, as well as Wallaceburg, Blenheim and Ridgetown District High Schools. In Lambton possible sites include St. Clair Secondary School, SCITS, Hanna Memorial and six other elementary schools.

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