One of two Honey Harbour schools will officially stay open for at least a few more years.
Trillium Lakelands School Board trustees voted in favour of keeping Honey Harbour Public School open for five more years. They made the decision at a meeting on Tuesday night.
The 56-year-old school houses about 30 kids.
“If I could jump 10 feet in the air at my age I would be jumping,” says Georgian Bay Township Mayor Larry Braid. “We're just so elated.”
This decision comes months after the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board announced they would close Our Lady of Mercy Elementary School.
Over the years, Honey Harbour's seen a steep decline in student enrollment, a tough situation considering there seems to be more cottagers in town than school kids.
“It seems to be a trend everywhere that there aren’t as many children being born.”
The school board is also concerned with having just two classrooms teaching kids from kindergarten to Grade 8.
“It gets more and more difficult, every year, to do that because of the curriculum,” says Louise Clodd, a spokesperson for Trillium Lakelands.
With new money on the way from the provincial government, Honey Harbour Public School will have five more years to make it work.
“More classrooms and more teachers to provide the programming for our students,” says Clodd.
For now, parents are breathing a big sigh of relief.
