With families wanting to attend schools not in their home communities, the economy turning around and out-of-boundary requests being made, recommendations were presented recently on how the South East Cornerstone School Division Board can handle attendance boundary issues that have been occurring frequently.
Lionel Diederichs, superintendent of Corporate Services and CFO, made recommendations particularly for the schools of Assiniboia Park Elementary (Weyburn), Spruce Ridge (Estevan), both Moosomin schools and Rocanville.
Recommendations were requested for these areas by Education Director Dr. Marc Casavant, who identified the need for further information on what to do for these schools. With the economy turning around, new development is taking place near those schools and families are moving in. This is increasing pressure on the capacity of those schools to handle the influx of students. The Education Ministry's goal is for a school to be at 110 percent capacity before taking action.
The five-year enrolment trends in Weyburn for Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten and Elementary show an increase in students in those grades. Total elementary capacity in the city is at 85-93 percent. Re-configuration is expected to take place with the closing of Queen Elizabeth and Haig schools and the redevelopment of Weyburn Junior High School to handle those students.
At Assiniboia Park Elementary School (APES), if the school stays the same size and enrolment trends continue, it will run at between 100-126 percent capacity.
Diederichs recommended that the Facilities Department should begin work on applying for portable classroom(s) for APES and close incoming boundary requests for that school. This recommendation is in line with current Board processes that limit students from transferring into a different attendance boundary area, when a school hits the 85 percent capacity level as designated by the Ministry. After the re-configuration of schools has been finished, a complete review of Pre-K to Grade 6 attendance boundaries in Weyburn should be undertaken.
