It may be the middle of the summer, but some big decisions about schools in Nova Scotia were made over the weekend.

Four Acadian elementary schools in western Nova Scotia are set to close over the next five years, according to the province’s Acadian school board.

The plan is for Ecole Saint Albert and Ecole Jean-Marie-Gay to close in July of next year. They'll be followed by Ecole Joseph Dugas and Ecole Stella Maris in July of 2022.

By September of 2022, the students will all be moved into a new school.

The provincial francophone school board voted to go ahead with the closures at a meeting Saturday morning.

The board says a new school will be opened to accommodate the students affected by the closures.

One of the factors in deciding to close these schools down was student population, which is also affecting some schools in the Cole Harbour area. In addition to the closures in the CSAP board, CTV News has also learned the Halifax Regional School Board has stopped a review that’s been going on for months.

Education Minister Zach Churchill sent a letter to the Halifax Regional School Board last week, ordering the school board to, “Immediately stop any school reviews currently underway that don't look at infrastructure, and ensure no new reviews are initiated until further directed."

That directive came down after more than eight months of work from 34 members of the School Options Committee. They were trying to come up with a plan for 17 schools in the Cole Harbour area that need to be revamped.

“Thirty-four very passionate people coming together in a committee posed some challenges,” says committee member Margaret Rao. “We had a fantastic group of facilitators that helped us through the process. There were quite a few discussions that were complicated and heated, but we made it through. It was a lot of work.”

The group looked at things like walkability and infrastructure. They also tried to balance out school populations, with some schools under capacity and others relying on portable units.

They recommended amalgamating Cole Habour High and Auburn Drive High into one school with a dual campus. They also recommended closing Sir Robert Borden Junior High.

Rao says that she's not surprised the review process was stopped, as the Liberals promised that in their election campaign. But the board wanted to finish their work.

“The voice of the community would be out there, would be heard, would be in report form that people could refer back to. So that even if the process was halted, as it has been, that report is there in the future when they decide to look at this again, because they're going to have to be based on the numbers,” Rao says.

With the new high school opening in Eastern Passage next September, enrollment at schools in the Cole Harbour area is going to drop even further.

Churchill has given no indication when or if this review process might start up again or when a final decision on school closures will be made.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Emily Baron Cadloff.