By Morgan Davy
BELLEVILLE – Hastings County could see three new schools if the Ontario Ministry of Education agrees to grant the funds.
The Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board agreed Monday night to ask the ministry for the money for the new schools.
The first of the proposed new schools would be a junior kindergarten to Grade 8 replacement school to be built on the site of Queen Elizabeth Public School in Trenton, after the demolition of the existing facility. The existing Breadner Elementary School and College Street Public School would be closed, with their students joining Queen Elizabeth students at the new school.
The second project is a merging of two schools in Marmora into a new facility. It would house the JK to Grade 3 program that is now at Earl Prentice Public School and the Grade 4 to 8 program now at Marmora Senior Public School. The existing Marmora Senior Public School building would be demolished and the new school would be built in its place.
Finally, a third replacement school is proposed for the current site of Bayside Public School and Bayside Secondary School in Belleville. All grades and programs from both schools would be combined into the new facility.
The school board plans to submit business cases for building the new schools to the ministry by the end of October, and should hear back by early 2014.