Mawhinney: Schools Need More Maintenance Funds

The South Shore Regional School Board will hand the keys to Lunenburg Academy back to the town at the end of the month. Town staff and school board officials have completed a walk through of the historic building in an effort to survey the condition of the facility. Mayor Laurence Mawhinney says the building will need some maintenance work and during council this week, had some sharp criticism for past provincial governments. He says regardless of the political stripe - school boards have been grossly under funded to keep up maintenance at schools across the province. "The monies being provided to look after the 27 or 28 buildings operated by the school board in Lunenburg county was just not adequate to keep them in a state that was going to carry them forward. Anyone who owns a home and looks after it properly knows you have to do maintenance every year. That was not happening at our school properties - the academy is but one,"  Mawhinney stresses he's not blaming the Regional School Board. However, with a number of new schools opening across the province - he's is hoping the trend will be reversed. The 117 year-old Academy, owned by the Town, housed grades one through twelve until 1965 when a new high school was built. It was home to elementary students up until this month when the new Bluenose Academy opened in Lunenburg.