The Board of Education approved the proposed changes to schools catchment boundaries, which will be in effect for the 2020/2021 school year.
The new catchment boundaries will help alleviate current capacity issues in the School District and address burgeoning enrolment. The District has seen an additional 1,000 students register in its schools in the past four years. Some schools are already full and long-term projections indicate a steady increase in the student population. As the District plans ahead for the future, it has had to reconsider school catchment boundaries to ensure there is adequate space in each school to provide the most optimal learning environments for all of its students. As part of the review, the District committed to engaging with the public to help inform the Board of Education’s decision-making. The catchment boundary review included multiple opportunities for members of the public to provide input. The Catchment Boundary Review started in Spring 2018. The District engaged its community in the Thetis Vale area of the District to help address capacity issues. While this consultation showed strong preferences in this specific community, it was clear that due to class size and composition requirements as well as increased enrolment, the process needed to be broader.
In November, the District heard from more than 5,100 community members through the Catchment Boundary Review Survey. The feedback collected helped to inform the District’s guiding considerations, as well as, highlight important factors for families and specific neighbourhood considerations. All the information gathered helped to inform the boundary proposals shared in phase two of the review.
In January, the District proposed changes to school boundaries for the public to review and launched phase two of the consultation process. The District hosted three open houses and gathered input online to ensure parents, guardians, staff, and members of the public had the opportunity to participate and provide input, including at the school level. During the phase two consultation, more than 400 community members attended the open houses and over 1,000 people submitted input online about the proposed changes.
For the full survey results, input collected at the open houses, and the Phase Two Summary Report please review ‘Resources’ at the bottom of this webpage. In April, the District shared revised proposed catchment boundaries and launched its third phase of community consultation. The District collected additional input from the community in the month of May, particularly on specific issues related to individual school changes, and had the Board review all the feedback and considerations. On June 25, 2019, at a Special Boundary Review Board meeting, the Board of Education came to a final decision on school catchment boundaries.
