School board looking at changing boundary at Central Public School in Guelph

An increase in enrolment at Central Public School in Guelph has the Upper Grand District School Board looking at a review of the school boundary.

Central PS is a JK-6 school located on Dublin Street in Guelph.

Board chair Ralf Mesenbrink says the school has been operating at overcapacity the last couple of years.

“It’s gone from 214 or 215 students to a little over 280 students,” said Mesenbrink, who is also the trustee for the area where Central PS is located.

“The on-the-ground capacity (where every classroom is used to capacity) is 274.”

There are portables installed at the school to handle the additional students. But there are concerns about the limited amount of space at the school for parking and for children to play.

With the City of Guelph having plans in place to increase the number of residential units in the downtown core,  more students are expected to enroll in area schools such as Central.

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“Based on that, I expect that (enrolment) will remain where it’s at or increase,” Mesenbrink said.

The boundary review also includes Paisley Road Public School, Willow Road Public School, and Victory Public School. The review process will go over a number of options to resolve the issues of overcapacity or underutilized schools, or whether to make changes to the school boundary.

“Paisley Road Public School and Willow Road Public School are being considered as possible places to move some students from Central,” said Mesenbrink.

“Victory Public School is much like Central where it has a constraint lot and really doesn’t have capacity for increased enrolment.”

A motion to begin the boundary review will be on the agenda at the Nov. 14 board meeting. There is a public information session happening at Central PS on Nov. 30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

There is also a survey where the public can offer feedback on the boundary review and all questions and inquiries can be emailed to: planning.infro@ugdsb.on.ca.

Any approved changes to the school boundary will be implemented for the 2024-2025 school year.

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