Despite protest from the community, Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) will be closing down, along with Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute (QECVI).

KCVI, Ontario’s oldest public school, and QECVI will not close until a new school can be opened.

According to Laurie French, chair of the Limestone District School Board, the soonest a new school can open is fall of 2016.

French said that the benefits of opening a new school are accessibility for individuals with “physical limitations”, environmental efficiency and the ability to offer programming environments that the older buildings housing KCVI and QEVCI cannot.

“Not only the physical environment, but the increased number of students by consolidating the two groups of students into a larger number, also offers for a much broader range of programming than they can currently access in the two individual schools,” she said.

KCVI is located in downtown Kingston, but according to French, only 25 per cent of the students who attend KCVI live in the downtown area.

“Those students will have the opportunity to attend a new school within a couple of kilometres of the downtown … that Princess St. corridor is the region we’re looking at, so this will not be far away for them,” she said.