HEATHER BOA Bullet News SEAFORTH – The Avon Maitland school board has redrawn the boundaries to determine which schools children from two closing rural schools in Huron County will attend in the fall.
After two public meetings this fall, board staff have divided up the catchment areas of Holmesville Public School and Colborne Central Public School, which will close at the end of June.
High school boundaries for GDCI in Goderich and CHSS in Clinton are aligned with the new Goderich Public School and Clinton Public School boundaries.
“This helps us with aligning our bus routes and creates some efficiencies for us but probably more importantly it allows us to keep a handle on enrolment at Goderich Public School. That school is going to be very full,” said Mike Ash, who is the board’s superintendent of schools. He told trustees at a board meeting this week there were requests for boundary adjustments that would have sent more students to Goderich PS, but with potential future development in its catchment area, it’s not possible at this time. He said boundaries may be reviewed at a future date.
Elementary students just north of Kitchigami Road to just south of the Blyth Road, with a one-block exception, will attend Goderich Public School. Students on Kitchigami Road to just north of Telephone Road will go to Clinton Public School. Students on Telephone Road and south will attend Huron Centennial Public School.
The realignment shifts the boundary for CHSS to just north of Kitchigami Road, so that about 10 high schools students will potentially switch from GDCI to CHSS.
“We are trying to sustain enrolment in both GDCI and CHSS,” he said. “In the big scheme of things, that number of students will not have a significant impact on enrolment or programming.”
Board staff will work with families of students already in high school to avoid a school switch where possible.
Students who ask to attend schools beyond their borders will be accommodated if there’s space available, as long as it doesn’t affect school programming and doesn’t incur extra costs for the board.
Families will be notified of the new boundaries before students leave classrooms for the Christmas break.
The board voted to close Holmesville PS and Colborne PS in June, after months of accommodation review meetings.
One Comment on "School boundaries redrawn for September 2013"
It’s very typical of this board to understate the number of students lost to not just GPS but to GDCI. Add to the suggested loss of 10 students the continued projected enrollment decline and that number is bound to be greater than 10.
If the rumours of GDCI & CHSS being next in line for an accommodation review, has the board just forced a student enrollment decline for Goderich schools? How will that play out in an accommodation review?