Catchment changes considered for two schools

Two elementary schools are being considered for catchment change.

Currently Edgewood and Spruceland Traditional Elementary Schools feed their students into Duchess Park Secondary School.

School District 57 (SD57) is contemplating a change to move that flow of students to D.P. Todd Secondary School instead.

A committee was tasked by SD57 with looking into the feeder system and is recommending these changes.

“The Education Services Committee supported the recommendation and it has been accepted by the Board of Education,” said a written SD57 statement.

“Grade 7 students leaving Edgewood Elementary and Spruceland Traditional Elementary in June 2020 would attend secondary school at D.P. Todd Secondary instead of Duchess Park Secondary in September 2020.”

Accepting the recommendations does not equal implementation, only that the plan is deemed to be workable enough to advance to public consultation.

Those hearings will be held Tuesday at Edgewood and Wednesday at Spruceland.

Both sessions are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. Members of the Board of Education will be in attendance to receive feedback.

The change has been recommended as a solution to overpopulation at Duchess Park, a triple-track secondary school that opened in March 2010,” said the district’s statement.

Duchess Park’s current student population – including 44 Franco-Nord graduates – is 1,075.

Its capacity, as listed by the Ministry of Education, is 900.

D.P. Todd is also currently over capacity, with 640 students in a building meant for 600.

However, renovating this school is part of SD57’s five-year plan and that capital project could add as many as 300 new spaces.

It is a site where portables could easily be added to cover the interim until the addition is built.