WATCH: Parents from Lorne Middle School in Saint John are taking the next step in the fight to save their school, as Global’s Andrew Cromwell reports a former Education Minister is getting involved.
SAINT JOHN – Parents of students who go to Lorne Middle School are fighting to ensure they can continue attending the school.
Lorne has been slated for closure after the District Education Council made the recommendation to Education Minister Serge Rousselle, who later approved it.
The fight to keep the school open officially began Friday morning, when several parents made an application for a judicial review.
READ MORE: 12 schools in New Brunswick up for possible closure
The lawyer leading the battle is former Education Minister Kelly Lamrock, who says the government promised to make the decision about more than just money.
“The minister has refused, when asked in the legislative assembly, to share the district’s reasons for closing the school,” Lamrock said.
It was Lamrock who rejected the recommendation to close Lorne Middle School back in 2009.
“It will be instructive in court to look at the difference between the two processes. Where, after there was a recommendation to close, a minister met with the community and checked the issues in the recommendation and issued written reasons for a decision.”
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The head of the parent school support committee says this has been a worry since 2009 when the school’s boundaries were changed.
“Six years ago, they started the death knell for Lorne that we’re now dealing with. This has been a wound that was afflicted by the DEC waiting for a time to close the school,” he said.
A statement from Rousselle says he’s not commenting on the matter while it’s before the courts but is satisfied procedural fairness was respected.
Lamrock says he hopes the matter will return to court sometime in July.
READ MORE: New policy to trigger reviews of N.B. schools with low enrolment
With files from Global’s Andrew Cromwell
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