Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Greater Victoria School District Seeks Input on New Proposed Catchment Boundaries

Victoria, BC – The Greater Victoria School District will be hosting open houses in February to gather input on new proposed school boundaries. The Board of Education passed a motion at Monday night’s Board meeting enabling the District to proceed with consultation on proposed school catchments.

The District is proposing new school boundaries due to increasing enrolment and limited space in some of its schools. It has been approximately 20 years since the District last reviewed school catchments. The District’s student population continues to grow significantly and smaller class size legislation has impacted the availability of space in schools.

“In the past four years, the District has seen nearly 1,000 additional students register in our schools,” noted Superintendent Shelley Green. “Some schools are already full and long-term projections indicate a steady increase in the student population. The District must balance enrolment across the entire District to prepare for future growth.”

The proposed boundary changes are responsive to feedback received from a public survey during phase one of the catchment boundary review. In the Fall of 2018, the District started collecting input from the public to help inform the process of reconsidering school boundaries. The District heard from more than 5,100 members of the community, which included students and parents and guardians of current and future students.

“The Board is looking forward to receiving further input from the community. We want to ensure our decision-making process is open and transparent, so community engagement is very important to us,” shared Board Chair Jordan Watters. “Input provided through the survey helped to inform guiding considerations and identify important factors for families and specific neighbourhoods. However, while the Board makes every effort to accommodate all recommendations, the District has limited flexibility given the number of students it must accommodate.”

“The District is trying to limit the amount of change for its students and families,” added Superintendent Green. “These are never easy decisions and the District has tried to be thoughtful when considering all of the potential options and outcomes. Unfortunately, there is no option where everything can remain the same so we are trying to find the best solution. We hope through further consultation we are able to find the solutions that accommodate and take into consideration all members of our learning community.”

See Catchment Boundary Review Brochure for an overview of the proposed boundary changes, important and guiding considerations, and the survey results. Please find it attached.

To review the proposed catchment boundary changes in detail, use the District’s interactive digital map at:��

OPEN HOUSES:

Open House #1
Wednesday, February 6^th, 2019
6:30 p.m.—8:30 p.m.
Spectrum Community Secondary
In Gymnasium B

Open House #2
Wednesday, February 13^th, 2019
6:30 p.m.—8:30 p.m.
Lansdowne
In the Gymnasium

Open House #3
Saturday, February 16^th, 2019
8:30 a.m.—11:30 a.m.
Victoria High
In Andrews Gymnasium

For additional information visit:

The Board of Education will review all input collected on the proposed boundaries and will make a decision on the proposed boundaries this Spring.

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For more information, please contact:

Lisa McPhail��
Communications & Community Engagement
Greater Victoria School District
Office: 250.475.4103
����| ������������@sd61schools

Since the 2015-16 school year, the District has seen more than 1,000 new students enter our schools.�� This is a growth pattern that is projected to continue in years to come.

Some schools are already operating at full capacity with the most recent class size changes and long-term projections indicate an additional 1,800 students will enroll in the District over the next ten years. The District must re-evaluate catchment boundaries in order to align a growing student population with each schools’ capacity.

There are many factors that the District needs to take into consideration while reviewing school boundaries, such as:

• Age of current infrastructure
• Capacity of Schools
• Future Housing Starts
• Transportation
• Safe Routes to School
• Student Enrolment Priorities
• Enrolment Projections
• Current Students Enrolment
• Student Transfers
• Staffing
• Programs of Choice (French Immersion, Sports Academies, etc.)
• Schools of Choice (Cloverdale, South Park)

Background

For many years, there was a decrease in enrolment across the District giving students more flexibility to transfer from one catchment to another. Through declining enrolment, some schools were even closed. Most recently, the District has seen an increase in student registration.

History of enrolment increase/decrease over the past 8 years:

2011/12 – (164) decrease of 0.88%
2012/13 – (34.5) decrease of 0.18%
2013/14 – (211.3) decrease of 1.13%
2014/15 – 24.9 increase of 0.13%
2015/16 – 249.5 increase of 1.35%
2016/17 – 176.9 increase of 0.94%
2017/18 – 243.4 increase of 1.29%
2018/19 – 382.1 increase of 2.0%

The increase in student enrolment combined with limited space in some schools led to the District’s��student enrolment priorities. In 2017,��a consultation process on priorities took place to help determine the order in which students are placed in a school when space is limited. During that time, the District heard from the community the importance of students being able to attend their neighbourhood school – also known as their catchment boundary school.�� As well as the importance of keeping siblings together.

The feedback received from the public helped inform the District’s priorities. The Board of Education approved the student enrolment priorities in Spring 2017, to apply��to all new registrations, transfer requests, elementary to middle and middle to secondary transitions.��They were put in effect for the 2018-2019 school year to help alleviate space pressures at some school sites.

*Please note that student enrolment priorities will not change due to the catchment boundary review. Student enrolment priorities will apply to all new proposed catchment boundaries.

Class sizes

In addition to the growing student population, the Supreme Court of Canada reinstated contractual language that called for smaller class sizes. The smaller class legislation came into effect for the 2017-18 school year.

Boundary Review Consultation

As stated above, there are many factors contributing to the Catchment Boundary Review and even more considerations when creating new proposed boundaries. To increase awareness and greater understanding, a public consultation process will commence. The District will be seeking community input to understand the community’s perspective, which will help inform the decision-making of the Board of Education.

BOUNDARY REVIEW TIMELINE:

*The survey will be available here come mid-November.

Additional Resources:

Catchment Boundary Maps
School Locator Tool

NEW STUDENT REGISTRATION SCHOOL OPENING