by John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: Telegraph-Journal
February 25, 2026
Trish Wells has started a petition to save Dorchester Consolidated
Michelle Porelle says it would be a terrible mistake for the province to close smaller schools.
The mother of two children, who attend McAdam Elementary School in the village close to the American border, says she had an excellent education at the same modest brick building.
“You know everyone in your class, and the teachers have more time to work with you one-on-one when you’re struggling with something,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “Or if you excel, they have a bit of extra time to give you more to work on.”
The Liberal government is facing a deficit crunch of $1.3 billion, a growing figure Premier Susan Holt says she wants to shrink in the second year of her term.
As part of the discussions in the lead-up to the provincial budget March 17, her government published a document called Difficult Decisions that floats the idea of closing schools with fewer than 100 students.
In a list supplied to Brunswick News on Wednesday, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development showed 33 of more than 300 schools across the province fit the bill.
Most of them, like McAdam Elementary (92 students enrolled) and McAdam High School (88 students), are in rural areas, far away from cities. Shutting those smaller schools would likely mean long bus rides for children to attend schools outside their home communities.
“It would be very hard,” said Porelle, who is the village clerk. “You’d probably have to get your kid on the bus at 6 or 6:30 in the morning, and they wouldn’t get home till 5 in the evening. That’s a long day, especially for elementary kids.”
Dorchester’s school
Some parents have already taken matters into their own hands.
Trish Wells, a parent at Dorchester Consolidated School, has started a petition to save the school on change.org that’s already garnered more than 300 signatures.
“The children will be put into bigger classes and the ones that need extra help will fall between the cracks and their education will suffer,” Wells wrote, adding that she had recently moved her child with a disability to the school in the small community to get more personalized instruction.
“Since transferring to Dorchester, she has been thriving because of lower numbers in the class.”
Susan Holt speaking in the NB legislature in November
Holt told reporters Tuesday at a collaborative care clinic announcement in Blacks Harbour that her government had to prioritize spending.
“We are double checking and triple checking every dollar we spend, so that New Brunswickers can know that this government is making careful decisions.”
She added that no stone would be left unturned in the effort, underlining that her government’s number-one priority was restoring the crumbling health-care system.
“New money for health care means you got to find it somewhere.”
She added that the province has a long-standing policy of reviewing schools that have fewer than 100 students.
“We’re taking the opportunity to check that, you know, are we on top of reviewing schools at the frequency that we should? And are we making the best use of every dollar and every piece of infrastructure?
“Every single one of them isn’t up for closure. Because some of them were just reviewed a couple years ago, whereas others, including schools in my riding, have seen new schools built around them and haven’t had a review in a while.”
‘Attack on rural New Brunswick’
Ian Lee, the Progressive Conservative education critic, said as a former teacher, he was deeply concerned whenever a government talks about shutting schools, especially with the population growing so much in the last few years.
“Small schools in rural areas tend to be the hubs of their communities,” he said in an interview. “Closing those rural schools would hurt communities and families.”
In his riding of Fundy-The Isles-Saint John Lorneville in southwestern New Brunswick, three schools would be at risk of closure: Back Bay Elementary School (44 students), Deer Island Community School (41) and Fundy Shores School (73).
“You’d have a lot of parents wondering where their kids are going to go. If you have to go to a school farther away, that means more busing and it would impact family activities. Small communities would be up in arms and protest against that.”
The rookie MLA argued the Liberals should be able to slay the deficit without cutting education.
“I see education as an investment, and it should be a priority,” Lee said. “If you look at the previous government, it had balanced budgets, paid down debt, cut people’s taxes, while at the same time, made investments. It comes down to financial and fiscal prudence.”
Megan Mitton at Tantramar Town Hall
The small opposition Green Party was also troubled to see school closures floated as a trial balloon.
“A lot of rural communities are really feeling stressed and wondering what’s going to happen,” said MLA Megan Mitton in an interview.
Dorchester Consolidated School, with 92 students, is in her riding.
“A lot of the items in the Liberals’ document is an attack on rural New Brunswick. We’re seeing the threat of closing small schools, potentially closing smaller heritage tourism sites, ending funding to small nonprofits, and not taking care of certain roads, which would probably be in rural areas. So, I’m really concerned by what they’re floating.”
Rural schools, she pointed out, are often used for other important community events, such as public meetings or recreational activities in the evenings and on weekends.
‘Careful with every dollar’
Holt, however, promised there would be no surprises come budget time.
“We don’t want people to wake up on budget day and go, ‘what just happened?’ without having been part of the conversation.”
The premier said she understood the special place smaller schools had in people’s hearts.
“I love hearing from communities that tell me how special their school is, the history associated with it, the fact that their rural community has fought for the school in years past, and there’s lots of reasons why we’ve invested in its maintenance, why it doesn’t make sense to move students hours down the road to another overcrowded school nearby, but we are being careful with every dollar.”
To read a recent letter from Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black to Education Minister Claire Johnson defending the Dorchester school, click here.
This story from Brunswick News was written by Local Journalism Initiative Reporter John Chilibeck.
Around 1995 my family and our one-room school community fought to keep the last one-room school in Quebec open.
1) We were able to produce a document that proved the longer bussing would end up costing the school board more than keeping the students local, in addition to over-shooting the 45-minute max commute that could be asked of children.
2) We made the argument for the pedagogical value of multi-level schooling (I still have the document with the supporting evidence that multi-level schooling works wonders.)
3) We also raised money to build a second room onto the school to accommodate the library and make more room in the classroom. When the school commission agreed to keep it running, the families held a building bee during the summer, to build the classroom.
My son never learned anything more valuable than that lesson: with a community working together, authorities can change their minds, and new solutions can be found and realized. The little school is still going in St. Telesphore, Quebec, near the Ontario border.
Dorchester gains a “supposedly much needed firehall” only to lose their little local school… these tragedies just continue.. don’t they? There is so much fat and waste and bureaucracy in the “healthcare” field that I find it absolutely sickening, newbie Susan Holt has made it seem as though their only choice was this slashing of small schools when clearly she could scrutinize the waste in healthcare — seems like that topic is off limits though. You just keep paying more and getting less; it’s a scam.
“If you look at the previous government, it had balanced budgets, paid down debt, cut people’s taxes, while at the same time, made investments. It comes down to financial and fiscal prudence.” -Ian Lee, the Progressive Conservative education critic
This is self-congratulating nonsense. There were lots of factors such as economic growth and reduced debt costs in the previous budget surpluses, as others have commented on:
https://www.theaquinian.net/post/explainer-why-does-new-brunswick-have-an-almost-200-million-surplus
It was the product of various factors, not the brilliance of the Higgs government. The current deficit has been contributed to by the USA’s trade war against Canada, and other factors.
The province should cut useless spending, like on private consultants and tax holidays for corporations like the Irvings, but should not be afraid to run a deficit for several years until the trade war and other instability has passed. Cutting funding for education and related services that contribute to literacy and to employability would be an irresponsible mistake.
“until the trade war and other instability has passed”? You make it sound like you think that could happen.. like many, you are underestimating what Donald Trump is doing and how he is attempting to bring Canada into the USA with pressures economically.. no war, guns etc. are needed.. time to wake up.
There is no choice between Small Schools and Health care.
There is a choice between a bloated bureaucracy which is still expanding. E.G., 2015 Anglophone East School District Education Council hired twenty three (23) more office staff to deal with prioritizing how to help remaining teachers who were being laid off. Paradoxically while laying off teachers.
Education and Health have been the number one priority promise of successive governments for decades. Ironically, Holt has mentioned small Schools. But now it is post Tumbler Ridge. SMALL SCHOOLs ARE THE SAFEST. because they are in our neighbourhood.
Well you won’t being closing them now without changing the plans for the new high school to meet the new reality. they have to be re figured now..
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia get 1.2 billion federal dollars addressing potential youth harassing other students and citizens, .
How is that being spent in schools. (Youth is for the ages of 15 to 30.)
The Tumbler Ridge mass shooting changed everything. The new High schools have to be repurposed. Even now the only safe place for senior grades is the Old Moncton High School.
Small Schools remain the safest place for students in New Brunswick.
Every community you want to grow has ideally a grade one to six. school Every new residential project should have a soccer pitch and a 1 to 6 school . And that is a FACT that can be checked.
Holt’s idea of choosing between educating the next health providers and saving this old man. ABSURD! As much as I love life, EDUCATION comes first..
New Brunswick even suggesting choosing any school or hospital is a pretty SICK choice to pin on citizens. Even Hobson’s choice is better than that.
Elina Gorokhovas 2010: A Mountain of Crumbs.
. They lie to us.
. we know they’re lying.
.They know we know they’re lying.
.But they keep on lying any way.
We have seen that evil face too often. The pretext is over.