P.E.I. school board votes to cancel rezoning

The Eastern School District, badly behind on its plans to rezone schools for next year, voted Wednesday night to cancel the plan.

The board voted for the rezoning in January, with plans to change the boundaries of more than a dozen schools. Some of those schools needed extra room for incoming kindergarten students. There was a plan to seek public input, but that never happened.

Three trustees abstained from the vote, including Edna Reid.

"I am shocked that we have detoured so badly from our plan," said Reid.

"We promised and committed to rezoning. We have schools where parents have requested rezoning because they have very serious concerns. We came out, we said we were doing it, we delayed our report because we wanted public input, we got no public input."

The chair of the rezoning committee, trustee David Mitchell, said because the province is now building extra classrooms rezoning can wait.

Some trustees spoke of the need to rezone the entire district but no timeline was set. The board says it needs funding from the province for a comprehensive review of school boundaries, but so far the province hasn't committed the money.