What to do with Hamilton’s Sherwood High School?

School boards across Ontario are struggling with the same problem, what to do with schools desperately needing repairs?

Sherwood high school on Hamilton’s east mountain is not old but the size of the repair bill could close it down. That’s left the school board and community searching for options. The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board says the 55-year-old school has just over $12-million in urgent renewal needs.

The board is floating three ideas with community members on what they’d like to be done. Option one includes enough upgrades to maintain the building’s safety while students continued to learn at Sherwood. Option two would have the students in a temporary building that’s a thirty-four-minute walk or six-minute drive from Sherwood for up to two years as the school undergoes major upgrades. The third option would have the vacant Barton High School receive the upgrades. Once that’s done, that building would be the new Sherwood.

Stacey Zucker from the HWDSB says, “option 2, which is to move the students temporarily we’re looking at fifteen million dollars and option 3 where we would move the students permanently is approximately eight million dollars” The board has just over nine million dollars currently available.

An online information session will be held on Thursday, February 10th.