Bat infestation plaguing N.B. high school results in closure for remainder of year

Students at a northwestern New Brunswick school are being sent to other locations for the rest of the school year due to a bat infestation.

David McTimoney, the superintendent of the Anglophone West School District, said in an email Friday that Tobique Valley High School in Plaster Rock, N.B., will be closed while the removal effort is underway.

He says the 134 students from Grades 6 to 12 and the 22 staff at the school will be relocated for the remainder of the year to schools in Plaster Rock and nearby Perth-Andover.

Today is the students’ last day at Tobique Valley High School, with remediation efforts scheduled to begin this week.

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McTimoney says that since March students and staff “have been very patient and resilient when it comes to attending school in a building that bats also occupy,” but adds the time has come to “get to the bottom” of the issue.

The school district says bats have been a recurring issue in the building, and a large remediation effort also took place last year.