The official vote by the Bluewater Board to close Derby School brings a four year battle to an end.
Derby was part of an accommodation review that started in 2012 with Derby recommended for closure. Parents fought hard and in October 2013, trustees promised Derby at least another five years. Last fall, after only two years, trustees went back on their promise and included Derby in a new accommodation review.
Board bylaws allow trustees to rescind a motion made by a previous board. The final decision: Derby will close at the end of this school year.
Parent Marlissa Nyenhuis and other parents are not happy.
"I don't think the board understands that following the letter of the law and flaunting that in our faces does not a good board make," says Nyenhuis. "We have tried to show them that their strength is not in bricks and mortar but it is in communities, but instead they nickled and dimed the situation to death and they have created a great deal of antagonism which they're going to have to recover from."
Bluewater trustees rejected a compromise from the parents that would have seen the Derby kids stay together and all go to Arran Tara School. Now, some will go to Arran Tara, some to Hepworth and some to Hillcrest.
