High school students will fill classrooms again at Chaplin School this fall.The board of education for Prairie South School Division voted last week to reopen Grades 9 to 12 in the southwestern Saskatchewan school.A previous board had voted in 2007 to completely close the school.The community lobbied to have it declared a School of Opportunity and in May 2009 the provincial government agreed, but only for Kindergarten to Grade 8.Since the end of the last school year, the high school students have been attending school in Gravelbourg, Mortlach or Central Butte.A school can receive the opportunity designation based on potential economic growth in an area.Chaplin was the only one designated in 2009.Saskatchewan Minerals, a sodium sulphate producer, is expanding and developing new technology there and Chaplin Grain, an organic grain handler, is also expanding.A new board of education was elected last fall. It voted to rescind the 2007 motion, reopen the high school and remove the opportunity designation from the school.The board said it would prefer to develop innovative ways to deliver education and keep schools open.Chaplin had 45 students when it closed. The province said it needed 51 within three years to stay open.
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