French and vocal music teachers at some 145 elementary schools will be relieved to learn that their classrooms will remain open next school year.

Peel District School Board trustees voted Tuesday, Feb. 14 to use $1 million of in-year savings to cover the cost of cleaning the rooms for the 2017-18 school year.

The decision will save 266 elementary classrooms at schools under ministry-rated capacity, such as Plum Tree Park and Queenston Drive public schools.

The issue of closing classrooms surfaced this past September as the board looked for ways to make up for a $2.8-million budget shortfall, by saving on the cost to clean rooms that did not house core classes. The cuts were tied to the phase-out of top-up funding.

If the board locked the classrooms for good, affected staff would have to bring their teaching materials to an existing classroom by cart.

Some bucked at the idea, with elementary music teachers staging a protest at a board meeting last September. The pending closures also drew a fair amount of media coverage.

Last fall, trustees held an extraordinary meeting of the board – without public notice – where they decided to hold off on the elementary classroom closures and use savings to keep them open this school year. The amount is estimated at $900,000.

The fate of some elementary classrooms for 2017-18 was expected by June, but education director Tony Pontes recommended it be made before budget deliberations because a later decision could disrupt staffing and timetabling for this September.

A potential impact, he noted, could be that staff change their mind about what they teach and where.

"The debate through budget might be that we want to close those (classrooms), in which case we'll have given schools one year's notice," he added.