Centre Peel Public School in Mapleton has joined the overcrowded category in the Upper Grand District School Board’s latest “elementary identified schools” report.
At the April 26 board meeting trustees received the report for the 2016-17 school year.
The annual report compares projected enrolment figures for the coming school year with the school’s actual student capacity. The schools are then identified as overcapacity, underutilized, or neither, for the coming school year.
In addition to the information provided in previous years, in 2016-17 projections were expanded to estimate school utilization for the next five years.
“The purpose of including this data is for staff to provide trustees with a longer-term perspective of enrolment issues across the jurisdiction, which helps to inform the need for other review processes,” the report states.
Twelve per cent (eight) of the board’s elementary schools will likely be overcrowded in the coming school year, while 23% (15) will likely be underutilized and 65% (42) will be neither overcrowded nor underutilized. This year over half of the overcrowded schools offer French immersion, the board report states.
Centre Peelwqdq experienced a significant increase in enrolment in 2015-16 compared to its staffing projections, the report states – and the trend is anticipated to continue. For 2016-17 the utilization rate is 121% and portables will be used to relieve the enrolment pressure.
Other county schools in the overcrowded category include:
– JD Hogarth Public School in Fergus, which is projected to reach a 121% capacity but has a two-room ecopak and four-room portapak to help relieve the pressure. With the additional space the utilization decreases to 94%. However the report indicates the school is experiencing enrolment pressure largely because of its French immersion program; and
– John Black Public School in Fergus, which has a projected utilization rate of 111%. In 2014 the boundary changed and brought the Grade 4 to 8 students from James McQueen Public School to John Black.
The number of schools in the underutilized category decreased from 18 in the 2015-16 projections to 14 in the 2016-17 projections. Centre Peel and James McQueen were removed from the list. However, Kenilworth Public School is a new addition for the 2016-17 school year. “The utilization at Kenilworth Public School is projected to be 69% in 2016-17,” the report states.
“Small cohorts of students in JK (junior kindergarten) over the last few years have contributed to declining enrolment at the school.”
Other county schools that remain in the underutilized category include Alma Public School at 72%, Eramosa Public School at 77%, Erin Public School at 57% and Ross R. MacKay Public School in Hillsburgh at 56%. Longer-term projections show all of these schools will continue to be underutilized.
Erin Public School has had more than 200 unused pupil spaces for the last three years and because there is little forecasted growth in either Erin or Hillsburgh, due to lack of available sewage treatment, it is likely the space will remain underutilized, the reports states. The process has begun to use part of the school as a shared partnership space.
Other elementary schools in the county are neither overcrowded or underutilized.
