Citing changing demographics of their respective neighbourhoods, the London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) has chosen to close two schools.
Effective June 2018, Holy Cross and St. Robert will shut down.
The decision was made at Monday night's board meeting.
The LDCSB says there are 700 empty student spaces in the schools, affecting resources.
The board also says the buildings have significant capital needs, to the tune of $20 million over the next five years.
“Doing nothing was not an option,” said John Jevnikar, chair of the LDCSB in a news release.
“We needed to realign the number of schools with current realities, which meant moving from six to four schools. We also wanted to make decisions that would affect the least number of students.”
“We needed to respond to changing demographics in the area,” said Jacquie Davison, Superintendent of Business. “This geographic area contains the greatest density of school buildings in the entire school board, yet we have had a 40% decline in enrollment in ten years. Closing these two schools will eliminate 574 of the 700 empty spaces in the area.”
