A debate over where hundreds of junior high students should attend school has parents in Bedford in an uproar.

The plan last year was to move students from Bedford Junior High and Bedford South School to a soon-to-be-vacant high school building. Then in a rare reversal by the board, it announced it wouldn't move students at all.

Now the plan is back on the table.

"It's a dilemma that's from last year," said Steve Warburton, a Halifax Regional School Board member. "We know we're going to get bigger. We know that there's growth here. We know that there are more houses being built. We can see it."

There are groups of parents in both schools who are eager for their children to move to the Charles P. Allen High School building, which will be vacant by September.

Nicole MacHattie, a local parent, said she feels Bedford South School — a primary to Grade 9 school — is overcrowded.

"I want to make sure that it doesn't keep exceeding its maximum capacity, because it's hard enough for them to learn. I want to see some future plans made so that our children, when they get to junior high, they're going to have equal learning opportunities as others in Bedford," she said.

A boundary review started in September 2011 found Bedford South was built to hold 540 students, but had over 700 pupils. It used three portable classrooms to hold the excess students.

Decision to be made Feb. 27

"An old music room is being used as a classroom where teachers have used microphones so the children can hear the lessons when the band practices next door," MacHattie wrote in an open letter to the school board.

A few kilometers away some parents at Bedford Junior High said they are also eager to get their children out of the 50-year-old building.

"Stuff falling off the ceilings and the walls and the gym, a lot of odors, the bathrooms need refurbishment, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. There's air quality and mould issues," said Stephanie Watters, another parent.

Still, other parents are standing by Bedford South School on Oceanview Drive, saying their children would lose access to services if they moved. They maintain the number of students at the school can be managed.

There are close to 700 students at Bedford South School and 400 students in Bedford Junior High.

If students in Grade 7 to Grade 9 from both schools were sent to the Charles P. Allen site, there would be approximately 600 students.

The board will have to decide whether to refill the Charles P. Allen site with junior high students on Feb. 27.