School Review Process

In 2005, the South Shore Regional School Board initiated a review to assess whether the education program was being delivered as effectively as possible, given the limited resources of the Board in a time of declining enrolment.

The first phase of the review was carried out by Board principals, staff and teachers from 2005 to 2007. From this phase, two major reports were produced for the Board - the Phase I Report on Program Review and the Supplementary Report on Program Review. Both documents can be accessed by clicking on their names.

The second phase of the review was a School Utilization Study to determine how the Board could be make use of its facilities to realize the vision of sustainable quality programming developed in Phase I. The consultant hired to carried out the utilization study issued a Public Discussion Paper in November 2007, which was the subject of public meetings in January and February 2008. Using feedback from those meetings, the consultant developed the School Utilization Report Part 2, which included his recommendations. He also produced a report on Equitable Access which looked at how to improve access to the Board's special or alternate programs to make it more equitable.

In the Phase II reports, the consultant recommended that seven schools be subject to the province's School Review Process. That year-long process is governed by the Education Act and the regulations of the Department of Education. Possible outcomes of the review process include closure of the school, reconfiguration, consolidation, alternate use of school areas and continuation of the current situation at the school.  

At its March 26, 2008, meeting, the Board identified seven schools which would be subject to the review process - Big Tancook Island Elementary School, Lunenburg Junior/Senior High School, Lunenburg Academy, Centre Consolidated School, Greenfield Elementary School, Milton Centennial School and Riverport and District Elementary School. The Board motions on the school reviews are available here, and the Board's news release is here.

Impact Assessment Reports were prepared for each of the schools under review, using a template developed by the Department of Education. The template provides a comprehensive review of the impact of each of the outcomes of the review process, including impact on the community, on students attending the school being reviewed and on schools that might receive students from the school being reviewed.

At its May 28, 2008, meeting, the Board tabled Impact Assessment Reports for Centre Consolidated School, Lunenburg Academy, Lunenburg Junior/Senior High School, Milton Centennial School and Riverport and District Elementary School.

The advisory committees of the schools under review had until November 30, 2008, to respond to the impact assessments reports. Response were received from all five schools. Click on the name to access the responses from Centre Consolidated, Lunenburg Academy, Lunenburg Junior/Senior, Milton and Riverport.

At its meeting on May 27, 2009, the Board received Impact Assessment Reports on Big Tancook Elementary School and on Greenfield Elementary School. After discussion, the Board decided that Big Tancook would continue in the school review process but that Greenfield would not. The motions relating to those reports are available here.

The Board tabled the Big Tancook Elementary School response to the report at its October 28, 2009 meeting.