BELLEVILLE – The doors at Quinte Secondary School will officially be closing.

Members of the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board unanimously voted to consolidate Quinte students at the Moira Secondary School site at Monday evening’s final meeting, effective September of 2018.

They will also rebrand the consolidated school with a new name and logo, and that boundaries would be changed so that some of the Quinte students would go to Centennial instead.

They will then seek Ministry of Education funding/approval to build a new 9-12 school in Belleville, in consultation with the City of Belleville. Potential locations could include the former Hillcrest School site, current Moira site or another location in east Belleville. If funding/approval for a new school is not approved, the board will seek Ministry of Education funding/approval for an addition/renovation to Moira Secondary School.

The decision to close Quinte Secondary left a flurry of mixed emotions in the crowded room as some smiled, while others left quickly in a display of anger.

It was just last Monday that the Student Enrolment/School Capacity Committee had announced their plans to recommend that the board revisit the initial suggestions to close Quinte, instead of closing Moira.

Trustees previously stated that the change came as a result of lots of public input and that they fully supported the final recommendation set to go before the board for approval.

Quinte Secondary School student, Carly Henderson, said she was extremely heartbroken by the board’s decision.

“That really caught us off guard,” said the 17-year-old, trying to hold back tears. “Our community is going to be split in half and that’s the biggest thing.”

Despite an orchestrated walkout, a petition, and countless calls to the school board, the Grade 11 student added that she felt let down and disrespected by the trustees.

“I personally don’t think they really care about the students decisions,” she said. “I think all of our voices that have been presented haven’t been heard by them.”

But one thing Henderson said she wants Quinte to be remembered for is the impact that the school has had on the community throughout the years. 

Local business owner and guardian of a Moira Secondary student, Kathryn Brown, said while she was happy with the end result of the meeting, she understands it was a hard call.

“There’s a no win situation happening here because someone’s going to be disappointed,” she said. “I think the students had a great opportunity to see democracy in action.”

But Brown added that the hard part isn’t over for the board and that’s there’s still lots more work to do.

“Our next step is finding a way to bring the two secondary schools together in a way that makes it feel like home for all of them,” she said.

North Hastings trustee and chair of the board, Lucille Kyle, reiterated that the decisions the board had to make were not taken lightly.

“The process was tough for all of us,” she said. “When it started really getting tough amongst the trustees, my advice to them individually was ‘at the end of the day, we need to vote with what we feel is best and the outcome will speak for itself.’”

She further went on to add that the final decision would speak to student success and would benefit the community as a whole in the long term.

Regarding other Belleville school consolidations and closures, recommendations to join Hillcrest School and Prince of Wales Public School at Prince of Wales Public School effective September 2017 were approved.

Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria students will also be consolidated into one new kindergarten to Grade 8 school – pending a businesses case to the ministry of education. Harry J. Clarke students would then remain at their current location.

The board also approved the relocation of Grade 7 and 8 students from Sir John A Macdonald School to Centennial Secondary School in order to create a Grade 7 to 12 school by September 2017.

The board is now required to have their funding applications into the Ministry of Education by September 8, 2017.