EDMONTON – Education officials have been meeting with parents and getting their input – in person and online – about how the division should manage student growth.
Edmonton Public Schools (EPS) is dealing with overcapacity in new schools that have been built in developing neighbourhoods, says EPS Managing Director Dr. Lorne Parker.
About eleven Edmonton schools are currently overcapacity or close to it.
“We’ve got schools that are being built that are already overcapacity by the time they open their doors,” says NDP MLA Deron Bilous. “Something is wrong with our planning process.”
Many schools have taken extreme measures to accommodate the growing student population, including Doctor Donald Massey School.
“In December, we had another six classrooms open up, so that alleviated some of the pressure,” says Principal Jennifer Allen. “The first few months of the school year we actually had three classes being accommodated for in our small gym.”
So, Edmonton Public is asking parents and community members to weigh in on possible solutions.
“The parents provided us with good information,” said Parker on Wednesday evening during the second open house with parents. “They engaged in the process, they provided us with feedback on the options that have been presented online, along with providing additional options for us to consider.”
“There are a number of options that we’re looking at,” he added. “We could consider the shrinking of attendance area, or removing some neighbourhoods. Other options that are available to us is to remove the junior high program and have those students transported to another school in the district.”
“We also are hearing from parents that they would like us to consider a grandfather option which would mean that if you’re currently attending the school, those students would be allowed to remain, and we would control intake so we don’t reach capacity on those buildings.”
In a video posted on the EPS website, proposed plans to manage student growth include:
– Changing size of the area a school serves
– Reassigning neighbourhoods
– Making main and secondary attendance areas
– Moving grades or programs to different schools
“Ideally, we would like our students attending a school in their neighborhood, but in this situation, we’ve reached a point where those schools are overcapacity and we’re going to have to consider other options,” explained Parker.
About 300 people came out for Wednesday night’s meeting.
“Our parents really love having their children at our school and they would really like to stay,” says Allen. “But they’re also realistic. When they see the data and they see the numbers they know that it’s not sustainable, so I’m really glad so many have come out to give their input.”
Click here to complete the Space for our Students survey. The survey will be open until Jan. 17.
Click here to find out the dates and times of the public meetings and forums in your area.
As of 2013, Edmonton Public Schools was serving 46 more new neighbourhoods than it was in 2005.
Bilous says the school situation should have never become such a serious issue.
“The education budget is controlled by this provincial government. We have a $40 billion annual budget and clearly the province is not adequately funding our education system,” he says.
“Parents and families should not be put in this position of having to move their students, boundaries being withdrawn, class sizes swelling… Honestly, the frustration is that we shouldn’t be in this situation. The fact is that we know the number of people moving into the province each year, we know the fast growth that we have, yet clearly our infrastructure is not keeping up.”
However, in its video, EPS explains: “The reality is that the provincial government needs to balance our requests with requests from school districts from all over Alberta, so we need a thorough long-term plan to accommodate all the students we have now and … in the future.”
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