Commissioner Mike Allison now has until February 15 to advise Mrs Tolley if he has any arguments in favour of the Herbert school staying open.
In a letter to Mr Allison, Mrs Tolley said no final decision would be made until she had considered all the information provided by him.
The school would be open for term one "but beyond that I can make no guarantees", Mr Allison said in a recent letter to parents.
Mr Allison was appointed commissioner in March last year after Mrs Tolley dissolved the school's board of trustees.
That followed an Education Review Office report that concluded important governance and management issues at the school had not been addressed.
In October, Mrs Tolley announced consultation on the school's possible closure had begun.
In his letter to parents, Mr Allison said he believed the arguments submitted by him last year had been taken into account and only new and material evidence would now be considered.
"In view of the exhaustive efforts made by us all last year, I cannot, at this stage, imagine what else we can do," he said.
It would be prudent to plan for the "very real possibility" the school might close as early as the end of the first term.
Principal Ray Anderson, who has been on sick leave, intended returning to the school for the first term.
Mr Allison acknowledged the efforts made to keep the school open and realised the news would be greeted with "real dismay" by many.
However, the viability issues facing the school in April last year were of a serious nature. Many of those issues remained unresolved and, coupled with the close proximity of neighbouring schools with surplus capacity, meant the "battle to survive" was always going to be difficult.
