Prince George, B.C. – Declining enrolment and cost pressures have forced School District 91 to close two elementary schools – Fort Fraser Elementary and Sowchea Elementary in Fort St. James.

The decision was made at its school board meeting last night confirms chairperson Steve Davis.

“It’s tough. It’s the worst part of the job as a trustee to close a school and as a trustee we love all our schools and we think our teachers do great jobs.”

However he says declining enrolment has taken its toll noting both schools are more than half empty.

“Declining enrolment has really impacted the amount of money we get for students and that’s where we get our funding from,” says Davis. “Without that money we have to find ways to cut costs.”

And then there’s the cost pressures involved.

“Additional cost pressures have been downloaded from the ministry. There have been hydro increases, MSP increases, increases to the CUPE workers agreement we had to find in district savings.”

In addition to that he says the Board had to find over $300,000 “that were taken directly from our budget by the ministry as what they call administrative savings.”

What do the closures mean for students in the affected schools?

“The students from Fort Fraser will be added to the Fraser Lake catchment area while in Sowchea’s case they would be going to David Hoy which is the main school in Fort St. James.”