Update: Regina school board votes to rebuild Connaught school

REGINA – It appears the days are numbered for Connaught elementary school.  

At a heated meeting last night, the Regina Public School Board voted to tear down and rebuild the aging building instead of renovating and preserving it.  

In fact, the futures of three community schools were on the line last night.   

The motions to rebuild the first two schools, Glen Elm and Imperial McDermid, were passed without resistance.   

The school board plans to build a new school on the Imperial school site that will house students from both the old Imperial school and McDermid school.  

But when it came to that last school, Connaught, it was a very different scenario.   

After much discussion and debate the school board voted 5 to 2 vote in favour of the plan to re-build Connaught and that left many parents outraged.  

“I wish that they’d considered a renovation that didn’t involve demolishing eighty per cent of the school. That makes no sense, they fixed Davins foundation in 2002 amidst public pressure when it was facing demolition and i don’t see why they couldn’t do it with Connaught,” said concerned parent Kate Smart.   

The School division acknowledges there is an extremely slim chance that students at Connaught will have to be re-located before the new school is completed but that decision is a long way off. 

Their preference would be to keep the kids in Connaught school until a new one is built same as they did with the construction of the new Arcola School.