MONTREAL -- Low enrolment numbers have forced the closing of a West Island high school, Lester B. Pearson School Board commissioners confirmed Tuesday.
Students who currently attend St. Thomas High School on Ambassador Avenue in Pointe-Claire will be moved to nearby Lindsay Place High School, on Broadview Avenue.
The school will cease to exist and the building will become St. Thomas High School, the commissioners decided in a unanimous vote. The St. Thomas High School building will be used for adult education.
The changes will take place after the 2020-21 school year, and a transition committee will be created to ease the process, the commissioners added.
Students who currently attend Lindsay Place will be able to stay in the building to finish their studies, but they will become St. Thomas students as of the start of the 2021 school year.
The staff at St. Thomas High School are expected to fulfill the same roles at the new location.
About 400 students currently attend Lindsay Place High School, which has a capacity of over 1,300. About 1,200 students attend St. Thomas High School.
The school changes come as a result of declining English high school enrolment on the West Island. In January 2019, Education Minister Jean-François Roberge transferred two schools to the overcrowded French-language Marguerite-Bourgeoys school board.
Tuesday's school transfer was a way to ensure the education minister didn't step in to take any more schools to the French system, commissioners noted.
Beurling Academy, in Verdun, will remain open, the board also announced, though it too has seen dropping enrollment numbers.
Correction:
A previous version of this story did not make it clear that the students who attend St. Thomas would have to relocate to a new building.
