A public school board trustee is concerned the board will leave $856,000 on the table if they don't develop a plan for attracting community partners.
Jessica Sartori, a trustee with the Greater Essex County District School Board, was hoping to get a motion passed that would help convert empty school spaces into community hubs, using a retrofit grant from the Ministry of Education.
"I think that community partnerships are an excellent way to be innovative and offer different services in a community or a neighbourhood that doesn't already have them. And I'm very excited that we could play a role in that," says Sartori
Trustees voted against the motion because many felt the board was already doing all they could to work with community partners.
"Unfortunately, nothing has panned out. So, what I wanted us to do was come up with a list of eligible schools, come up with some ideas for programming, and then develop some kind of plan for community partnering engagement," says Sartori.
A report will come forward in June outlining the number of empty spaces in local schools and highlighting possible opportunities.
The deadline for a proposal for the retrofit dollars is the end of the 2017-2018 school year.