Star City School will close at the end of this school year in July. The North East School Division (NESD) board of education made the decision during the regular meeting on Sept. 22 at the NESD office in Melfort.
The decision was made after the Star City School Community Council (SCC) passed a motion during their Sept. 8 annual meeting to close the school.
NESD director of education Stacy Lair explained that in June the board put forward the intention to have the school put in a Viability Review.
“The school review, the board set forward their intention to review the school to the school community council and let staff, and the town and RM know in the spring,” Lair explained.
The AGM was a chance for the SCC to meet and let the board know their intentions, which Lair said is an important part of the process.
“The board then was left with the decision of then to carry forward and review the material they had and make a closure decision and that’s what they did,” Lair said.
The SCC passed a motion that the Star City School Community Council recommends to the North East School Division No. 200 Board of Education that Star City School be closed for the upcoming school year, and that the School Community Council consents to the closure of Star City School pursuant to section 54 of The School Division Administration Regulations.
Lair said that the SCC made a very difficult decision to close the school.
” It’s a hard one for them to consider, knowing everything that the school has meant throughout the many years of operations. However, they did decide to close effective July 2. So this essentially will be our last operating year of Star City School, and next year the students will transition to Melfort and Tisdale schools,” Lair said.
Lair explained that the next steps will be the school division working with the SCC, staff and families to develop transition plans. The full closure comes after the school was moved to a Kindergarten to Grade 6 school after the 2024-2025 school year, with the last graduation hosted in 2025.
Lair said that the hope was that the shrinking to a Kindergarten to Grade 6 school would give the school some viability. She added that the hope was that parents would know that students in middle years would transition to a larger school for greater academic and extracurricular opportunities.
“However, that just wasn’t the case. The school continued to have declining enrollment and there’s only projected for 15 students next year, 16 currently in the K to six school. And so it just it wasn’t feasible,”
The current projected enrollment for 2027-2028 was 15 students, the current enrollment is 15 students and the enrollment at the end of 2025-2026 was 24 students. “A school is.”
The School Division Administration Regulations establishes the conditions under which a Board may carry out a school review. For a school offering Kindergarten to Grade 6, projected enrolment for the following school year must be fewer than 37 pupils.
Lair said along with these enrollment statistics the board also considers the transportation aspect.
“When you look at the map, the Star City catchment is a long, skinny area that’s right between Tisdale and Melfort that are a 40-minute drive, 35-minute drive apart from each other,” Lair said.
The current students would either go to Reynolds Central School in Melfort or Tisdale Elementary School.
“They know that it’s a reasonable transportation period to bus kids to one community or the other if that catchment doesn’t exist anymore. And that was part of the decision for sure,” Lair said.
Lair said that even with the approval of the SCC, it was still a tough decision for the board to decide to close the school.
” It’s an important fixture in all of our communities and we’re pretty proud of that.
In the same way, they’re very sensitive to everything that comes along with that and what that means to a community,” Lair said.
She said that the board and division appreciated the communication with the Town of Star City and SCC and they have done their best to let the community know what is happening as the process happened and could engage in the work.
She explained that the process used was just a different pathway because there are two options.
” This particular pathway utilized a section of the regulations that just ended the school review at this time with a closure decision,” Lair said.
Lair said the catchment area and whether students go to Tisdale or Melfort will be a large part of the transition planning with families.
“While we maybe don’t make the decision with their preference, but we still want to know and be informed from families to inform how we shape those bus routes for next year and go from there. So lots of communication, lots of contact with families going forward to make sure that we make the best plan for everyone,” Lair said.
Lair said that the low enrollment numbers at 16 students in a school with a capacity of 240 really stood out to her.
“And although the board is funded directly for the cost per student in the package, they are still as responsible folks acutely aware that there is a difference between $21,000 per student in Star City and $9,800 approximately in the Tisdale Melfort Elementary School cost per student.
Lair said that the board makes people decisions not dollar decisions, but they still have to be financial stewards as trustees.
