School closings proposed for study

Thames Valley District School Board administrators are preparing to undertake a five-month study that could drastically change the landscape of public elementary schools in East Elgin and Central Elgin, including the potential closings of Springfield, South Dorchester and New Sarum, and the building of a large new elementary school in Belmont.

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 20, Kevin Bushell, executive officer of facility services and capital planning, said preliminary notices were going out now to municipalities, health units, daycare centres and other community groups, to allow them to begin forming responses.

The actual study had to still be approved by the school board before it could proceed. It would come up there in November and, if given the go-ahead, would be completed by next May.