Rumours that Corstorphine School will close its doors at the end of the year are untrue, the school's board of trustees chairwoman says.
Sheralyn Weepers said closing the Lockerbie St school, which has 53 pupils, had been an option, but letters had been sent to parents last Tuesday stating it would remain open for the foreseeable future.
‘‘We had looked at a number of different options and we had approached Calton Hill [School] and other schools about the possibility of a merger but they were not in a position to do that.
‘‘We did look at the option of closing the school but the board has decided to remain open.''
A meeting between parents of pupils and the board of trustees in early July showed unanimous support to keep the school open, Mrs Weepers said.
‘‘It's what our community wanted.''
Nineteen of the 29 families represented at the school attended the meeting.
‘‘It's really quite a difficult issue. The declining roll is happening in all schools and it's a constant struggle in our school to keep it going.''
At the end of May this year, the Otago Daily Times reported that several principals had warned a restructuring of primary education in Dunedin was inevitable in the wake of shrinking school rolls. More than half the primary and intermediate schools in Dunedin had posted their lowest or secondlowest March 1 roll returns in a decade last year, a decline of 15 per cent.
Mrs Weepers said the Corstorphine School board of trustees was still looking at viable merger options but merging with Calton Hill School, Caversham School, College St School or Macandrew Intermediate was out of the question.
‘‘Calton Hill and Caversham have been very supportive of our school but for them it's not a viable option to merge. Macandrew Intermediate are just amazing in the way they have supported us.''
However, Corstorphine School and Calton Hill School have joined forces to take pupils on school camp, while Corstorphine School and College St School have merged their kapa haka groups to ensure pupils do not miss out.
The Star contacted the Ministry of Education for comment but it had not responded by the time the paper went to print.
Corstorphine School principal Jenny Munro declined to comment.
