Closing schools permanently should be a last resort, says Alberta’s education minister, who is exploring turning some unused educational facilities into short-term medical and recreation centres, among other things.

Thomas Lukaszuk says vacant properties that were once schools detract from communities and using them for alternative means could ensure they are well-maintained. Then, should student populations in a given area be restored, the facility could conceivably be reopened as a school in a few years.

“What do we do with our surplus buildings? Initially the answer was very black and white,” Lukaszuk said. “I think there are other solutions.”

Frank Coppinger, the Calgary Board of Education’s superintendent for facilities,” called Lukaszuk’s proposal a “legitimate solution,” noting that has been utilized by other North American school boards.

The CBE has opened alternative programs at under-utilized schools in the past, including an all-boys offering at Sir James Lougheed school last year.

But Calgary parent Christine Ordze isn’t convinced. She helped stave off closure at Mayland Heights school last spring and believes opening a closed facility under a different guise would signal its end as a place of learning.

“When kids leave the public program and are doing well somewhere else, it’s very hard to draw them back,” she said.

The provincial education ministry is busy preparing a 10-point plan for the future of Alberta’s education and new strategies for avoiding school closures will be included in that, Lukaszuk said.