St. Christopher Catholic elementary school became the first casualty of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board's review of 17 schools for possible closure or consolidation last week.

Trustees approved the Hamilton East accommodation review committee's recommendation last Tuesday that the Greenhill Avenue site close on June 30.

St. Christopher will consolidate with St. John the Baptist elementary school on London Street South in the fall. Buses will be offered and St. John the Baptist will be renovated.

In the board's area review, which also looked at St. David and St. Luke elementary schools, St. Christopher had the lowest enrolment, with 105 pupils and the highest per-pupil costs, at $11,150.31.

Board chair Pat Daly says the decision to close St. Christopher was based on the fact low enrolment would have led to program cuts.

"It was based on the current and future enrollment and the impact that would have on programs for students," he said.

Whatever the reason, school council chair Jennifer Layden says it's a shame.

"I think it's going to be detrimental to our children," she said. "I mean, I don't see why they couldn't change our boundaries and bus other children to our school. We have an amazing school, in an amazing area.

We just have a great school and they could have put a little extra money into our school, just like they're going to do to St. John and kept our school going, but they decided not to. It's a done deal."

Ward 5 councillor Chad Collins says the decision to close St. Christopher will have a short and long-term effect on the neighbourhood.

"I reside in the neighbourhood, so for me with two young children - my kids are age three and four - St. Christopher's was one of two schools that we could have chose to send our kids to - Rosedale being the other one.

"My wife is Catholic and I'm not, so we sort of had the dual advantage of choosing between two really good schools, with good reputations and we were very disappointed as residents to hear that the school was going to be closed," he said. "Schools in a neighbourhood are much more than just educational facilities. Often times, they're meeting places for community groups and they offer recreational outlets for kids after school, so the loss of St. Christopher's will be felt not only through the educational system but also in the neighbourhood I think and beyond."

Mr. Collins adds closing and consolidating schools disrupts neighbourhoods.

"The problem we'll have down the road is trying to attract people to the neighbourhood," he said. "A lot of people when they move into a neighbourhood, one of the first things they look at if they're going to have a family is what kind of schools does it have and where are they located. So I really think down the road, we'll feel the full effect of these school closures."

While St. Christopher's is reeling from the effect of too few students, other schools are dealing with having too many students.

Though enrolment in most lower Stoney Creek area schools has dropped and is expected to decline over the next few years, enrolment at Immaculate Heart of Mary elementary school has significantly increased.

According to a 2007 school board accommodation report, the school's enrolment was 539 in 2006, up from 496 in 2005 and 425.5 in 2004.

Enrolment at the school is expected to continue to increase over the next few years, says Mr. Daly.

"We're putting another six pack portable at the school, which will relieve the overcrowding in the short term, but in the longer term, we've got to look at the whole accommodation of Stoney Creek," he said, referring the school that was just built in December 2006.

Growth in upper Stoney Creek has been steady over the past few years, with no signs of slowing down. As a result, elementary schools like Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Mark are bursting at the seams.

Four hundred and twenty students attend Our Lady of the Assumption, which also has 11 portables - seven in use, four awaiting an occupancy permit from the city. According to the accommodation report, the building's capacity is 244.

Enrolment at St. Mark was 625 in 2006, up from 593.5 in 2004, according to the accommodation report. The building's capacity is 479.

Mr. Daly acknowledges both schools are stretched beyond their intended capacity and the board is looking into the idea of a new school in Binbrook to relieve the overcrowding. The board must make a business case for funding to the Ministry of Education.

"Hopefully, the new school can be built in the next couple of years," he said.

Ward 9 councillor Brad Clark says he has no doubt there's need for new schools.

"This goes back to how we plan our communities. The developers put developments together in terms of where they're going to put housing, the city zones the property and agrees to this type of development and then basically says to the school board, 'By the way, here's where the development's going.'

"So in an ideal world, we would plan our infrastructure, we would plan our schools along with the plans for the development of the communities and we're not there and may never get there," he said. "But that would be the ideal situation - that if a new development is being constructed than the school is also being constructed in and around the same time. We tend to be five, 10 years behind all the time."

Next in line? The central city and west mountain accommodation review committees will report to the board sometime later in the fall.