Bruce County Council is backing efforts to improve how school boards plan and communicate possible school closures.
The Corporate Services Committee is supporting a resolution of the new Community Schools Alliance.
It calls on Education Minister Kathleen Wynne to put a moratorium on school closures and instead have the Ministry of Education, school boards, and municipalities develop plans to deal with issues facing small community schools.
Those include declining enrolment, the accommodation review process for schools facing possible closure, funding and accountability and transparency between municipalities and school boards.
The Community Schools Alliance has been started by Doug Reycraft — a former President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and Liberal MPP.
Brockton Mayor and County Councillor Charlie Bagnato says declining enrolment is a huge problem and there are ways to address it.
He’s pleased that Reycraft’s organization is trying to get the attention of the provincial government.
Bagnato says the system seems to be broken when it comes to meetings that are held about school accommodation reviews.
He says many times the public has felt like their voice wasn’t heard, and the alliance wants to review those concerns.