WATCH ABOVE: Lawyer Kelly Lamrock was in court Wednesday filing an injunction to block a school district from closing Browns Flat Elementary and Lorne Middle schools. Global’s Laura Brown reports.
FREDERICTON – The province is appealing a judge’s decision to keep two schools open.
New Brunswick’s Education Minister Serge Rousselle broke his silence on the matter of opening or closing Browns Flat Elementary and Lorne Middle School.
“Following a thorough review of Justice Darrell Stephenson’s decisions concerning recent school sustainability studies, the government has decided it will appeal the rulings to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal and seek a stay of the judge’s order,” Rousselle said in a statement.
Stephenson made the ruling to quash the Department of Education’s decision to close Browns Flat Elementary and Lorne Middle School last Friday.
READ MORE: Decision to close Browns Flat, Lorne Middle schools overturned
The Department of Education ordered to close the two schools under the province’s school closure policy earlier this year.
But despite the court’s ruling, the superintendent of the Anglophone South School District said the district is continuing with a plan to move students from the two schools to their assigned other schools.
READ MORE: District says ‘it would be impossible’ to reopen Browns Flat, Lorne Middle schools
“The judge said the school’s open and we’re going to ask the court to make that clear,” said Kelly Lamrock, the lawyer representing the schools.
Lamrock returned to the Saint John law courts Wednesday, filing an application. He is asking the court to quash the placement of students at schools other than Browns Flat and Lorne Middle.
READ MORE: Browns Flat to fight for school in court, 28 others up for review in upcoming school year
But he also filed an injunction stopping the superintendent and the district from placing the students, in the case the application can’t be heard before school starts next Tuesday.
Rousselle wouldn’t comment further on the matter, as it’s back before the courts.
Lamrock did say the province’s lawyers have reached out to him and are working to see if an agreement can be made.
Coles Island School community joins the legal battle
One more school has joined the battle.
Coles Island School was also closed this year by the Department of Education. But since the court ruling, that community has also reached out to Lamrock.
A spokesperson for the Coles Island School group said he’d like all schools to remain open until the province’s 10-year education plan is in place.
“It gave us totally new hope because our school was closed using exactly the same paperwork as Lorne and Browns Flat,” said Stephen McCready. “So if those two schools weren’t legally closed then Coles Island shouldn’t be legally closed.”
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