Two communities in central Newfoundland that were slated to lose their schools have been given a temporary reprieve.

At a meeting Tuesday night, the Nova Central School District board unveiled a restructured plan, which will keep open the schools in Triton and Robert's Arm for at least several more years.

Director Cindy Fleet said declining enrolment still poses serious problems for the Nova Central School District.
(CBC)

Under a draft plan released in 2005, schools in both towns were to have closed in the next two years.

Students from both schools will be directed to Pilley's Island, but upgrading that school is not an immediate priority. The board does not yet have a timetable on when that will happen.

As well, the board put on hold a proposal to close a school in Dover. Instead, the board said it will close one school in either that community or Hare Bay or Centreville.

Some contentious issues — such as busing some students in Eastport and King's Point to neighbouring towns — are still on the table.

Board director Cindy Fleet said declining enrolment in rural communities means there are still some tough decisions to make.

"The enrolment is dropping, particularly in senior high school," Fleet told CBC News.

"Fogo Island had a population of 1,100 students at one time, and now within a year or two, there's only going to be [about] 300 … students attending that school."

Under the board's plan, the only school in the central region that will close next year will be in Woodstock, where enrolment had dropped to just four students. Starting in the fall, they will be bused to Baie Verte.

The state of the gym at the high school in Grand Falls-Windsor, one of the largest communities in the board's jurisdiction, was also cited as a key concern.

The board decided Tuesday night that one of its top priorities for the coming year is to lobby the Newfoundland and Labrador government for money to design a new one.