Final decision: Connaught School to close in June

They put up a long fight, but they lost the final battle.

The local group, “Save Our Connaught” presented its final case at a school board meeting Tuesday evening, but ultimately the board voted to close the school for good at the end of June 2014.

An engineer’s report delivered in February described the building as, “on the verge of collapse”. The School Board deemed the building unsafe.

But, “Save Our Connaught” was pushing for an independent third party to evaluate the structural integrity of the building in hopes they could salvage the historic 102 year old school.

One board member made a motion to keep the school open for another year while they searched for a solution, but only one other board member supported it.

In the end, the board voted to close the facility, and send students to Wascana School for the September semester, and until a new school is built.

There was an audible outcry in the audience as that decision came in.

“We have our community behind us,” said Rene Dumont, Save Our Connaught member. “A recent survey that was done shows almost 90 percent of the parents and community members state they want to keep the building open for at least another year.”

The non-profit group was raising money in the community and online to fund the school repairs themselves. They collected almost $10,000.

Now the money will go towards what they call community efforts. They will try and finance research or possibly legal costs, and they hope to help families in transition.

Last week’s provincial budget allocated $4.1 million to four major school projects, including rebuilding Connaught. The Minister of Education says the rebuild should occur over the next two to three years.