Catchment areas transferred to D.P. Todd

MARK NIELSEN

In a bid to take the pressure off Duchess Park Secondary School, students graduating from Edgewood and Spruceland elementary schools will move on to D.P. Todd Secondary School starting next September.

School board trustees made the decisions to reassign the catchment areas following a lengthy consultation process over the past year but not without some extended and sometimes emotional debate.

While trustees voted unanimously in favour of the change for Spruceland, the vote for Edgewood passed by a narrow 4-3 margin as concerns about the impact on D.P. Todd and questions about whether Kelly Road Secondary School has been given enough consideration as an option were raised.

Urging trustees to postpone a decision until at least early December if not for another year, Trustee Sharel Warrington was particularly outspoken.

She questioned the school’s ability to take on as many as 70 more students, warned that the Ministry of Education has not yet responded to the district’s proposal to expand D.P. Todd and even if it does go ahead, it would take three to five years to complete.

“It’s not a done deal,” Warrington said. However, trustees in favour of the move noted there is no room for a further expansion at Duchess Park.

They also countered a contention made by two Edgewood parents at the outset of the meeting that students in the regular stream at Duchess Park are being sacrificed in the name of keeping the French immersion and Franco Nord programs at the school.

Trustee Ron Polillo, who chairs the catchment and capacity committee, said transferring those programs to Prince George Secondary School was considered by previous boards and found to be unrealistic.

“We have been delaying this decision, quite frankly, for years,” Polillo said. “It is our responsibility, as a board... to make a decision.”

Polillo was joined by trustees Trent Derrick, Betty Bekkering and Bob Thompson in voted in favour. Warrington was joined by board chair Tim Bennett and trustee Shuirose Valimohamed in voting against.

One loose end remains. Trustees will consider at their Dec. 3 meeting a notice of motion from Warrington to allow students at Edgewood and Spruceland who have siblings currently at Duchess Park to move on to that school.