Parents on board with BSD solutions to overcrowding

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This article was published 13/01/2016 (3909 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Concerned parents seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday night following the Brandon School Division’s second public consultation about overcrowding issues at local elementary schools.

Scott Hunter attended the first meeting in November and was glad the division decided to listen to parents’ concerns.

“A lot of parents, I think were worried, their kids were going to be moved somewhere else and that the division was forcing their hands,” said Hunter, who has two kids in Valleyview Centennial School. “I think it really eased a lot of people’s minds.”

Last month, division trustees voted unanimously to accept a report that outlined three possible solutions to capacity issues — one of which being retaining current Valleyview students over the next two years with modular classrooms.

Hunter says he is for the aforementioned recommendation because it will allow his daughter in Grade 7 to stay in the same school as her younger brother, making family logistics a lot easier.

While more than 250 people attended the first forum, roughly 40 people showed up on Tuesday and things were wrapped up in under an hour.

The school board took time to go over the division’s five-year plan and further explained the reason for capacity issues.

Greg Malazdrewicz, BSD’s assistant superintendent, said the division has gained 750 students since 2010, spread out over 44 classrooms from kindergarten to Grade 8. The province’s small class initiative to cap K-3 classrooms at 20 students adds to number issues.

The second recommendation to assign the Bellafields Development — located between Patricia and Maryland avenues and 26th and 34th streets in Brandon’s southwest — to the Meadows School catchment area garnered no comments from attendees.

The third recommendation, to give Riverheights School students from both Patricia Heights and Brookwood developments consideration for “school of choice” requests to move to Waverly Park School, prompted more queries.

One parent asked if buses would be provided for students opting for Waverly Park and another asked if “school of choice” was an option for kindergarten students. Malazdrewicz answered yes to both questions.

The recommendations don’t include changing catchment areas, but instead working with permeable boundaries that would give families living on the edge of boundaries school of choice within another area.

Malazdrewicz also explained how Brandon’s new elementary school will affect capacity numbers.

“The division was thrilled because we’ve been working on this for a while, the ability here will be to move students back to their own catchment,” Malazdrewicz said, adding that BSD formally asked the province last Friday, to build the new school with a 500-student capacity.

The south-end school is expected to be open in September 2019 and will have the potential to reduce enrolment at several schools that year — Riverheights, George Fitton and King George schools could reassign 100-150 students each to the new school.

At the end of the meeting, parents submitted their opinions about the three recommendations. Now the board will go through the feedback and figure out what to do.

“We need to do it pretty quickly … before you know it, it will be June,” said board vice-chairperson Linda Ross, adding that BSD would still like to see the changes come into effect at the beginning on the 2016-17 school year.

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