Lorne Avenue Public School will remain open for the entire 2015-2015 school year.
At Tuesday's Thames Valley District School Board Meeting, trustees approved the extension as work is done to accommodate students at Bishop Thownshend Public School.
Renovations at Bishop Townshend were set to start in October, but a funding delay from the province and planning issues delayed the construction. Funding was officially granted for the expansion last month and work is set to begin immediately. However, it will not be done in time to accommodate Lorne Ave. students come September.
That news led the school board to develop a plan which would have seen grade 6, 7 and 8 students from both schools being housed at Lorne Ave., while the younger children would be sent to Bishop Townshend. Then, whenever renovations were done during the school year, everyone would be sent to Bishop Townshend.
That plan resulted in a lot of criticism and confusion from the community, leading to the decision to keep Lorne Ave. open until June of 2016.
"It's going to allow for a much smoother transition for the students and the families. We don't have to worry about a split and flexible timelines. This is a solid timeline we can work with and the entire community knows what is happening now," says Scott McLean of the Save Lorne Ave. Group. "This is the best case scenario, given the school closing, to have a nice clean transition. It's one move for all of the kids and all of the families."
Those who live west of Adelaide St. and were to attend St. George's Public School in the fall of 2015 can still choose to do so, or they can remain at Lorne Ave. for the year.
"I think the process has been in a large part a disaster. It's taken to this point for the senior administration to start listening to the community. The closure is still a tragedy for the community and it's something that doesn't make financial sense for the board," McLean tells BlackburnNews.com.
The child care centre at Lorne Ave. will remain until the new one at Bishop Townshend is functional.
The existing Adult English as a Second Language program at Lorne Ave. will be moving to B. Davidson Secondary School in September of 2015.