CBC News

Trustees with P.E.I.’s Eastern School District voted Wednesday to build new schools in Stratford and Souris.

Trustees voted six to three to build a new school in Stratford. The three trustees who voted to keep small schools open last month, Edna Reid, Gael MacEachern and Elizabeth Rankin, all voted no, but did not explain why.

If the government approves last night’s board recommendation, it will have a tight schedule to finish the school by September 2010.

But board chair Robert Clow said it can be done.

“We had some schools already constructed … so they do have plans already so that, from what we can see, is that they can utilize those plans.”

The board also voted seven to two to build a new kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school in Souris by 2011. Reid and MacEachern also voted against that motion.

Anne Miller, the trustee who represents the Souris area, said a lot of parents were concerned about having five-year-olds attending the same school as 17-year-olds.

But Miller said presentations were made about “how the wings would be designed and how children in Grade 2 or children in Grade 12 would not be meeting each other in the hallways.”

Trustees also approved a proposal to expand Westwood Primary School in Cornwall to accommodate 160 extra students. There are currently 400 students enrolled at the school.

The province has to approve all three recommendations.

The recommendation to build the schools was part of a report, released earlier this year, that recommended 11 P.E.I schools be closed.

Last month, trustees voted to recommend to the provincial government that eight of 11 schools suggested for closure be shut down.

Of the three schools spared — Georgetown, Parkdale, St. Jean — one is in a town and two are in Charlottetown, leaving the more rural schools taking the brunt of the school board’s recommendations to government.