A new grassroots organization is taking its battle against school closures to Queen's Park.
Sarnian Susan MacKenzie, who was a vocal opponent to the closure of SCITS, is a co-founder of the Ontario Alliance of School Closures. She says they represent more than 15,000 people in 26 districts across Ontario fighting to save their schools.
MacKenzie says once the Pupil Accommodation Review Guidelines were changed in 2015, school boards no longer had to consider effects on the economy and the community when making a decision to close a school.
"We want to see a moratorium on school closures until the Pupil Accommodation Review Guidelines is rewritten and the funding formula is revisited," says MacKenzie. "You have to remember the Liberals did this in 2003 for three years to rewrite the Pupil Accommodation Review Guidelines so we're going to ask them to do it again."
She says one in eight schools in Ontario, primarily in rural areas, are threatened by closure.
MacKenzie says boards are closing schools for short term financial gain without thinking about the long-term economic and social impacts on communities.
The organization is staging a rally at Queen's Park on November 21.
