Norwell District Secondary School in Palmerston and Wellington Heights Secondary School in Mount Forest are projected to be underutilized next year.
The Wellington County schools are the only two high schools in the Upper Grand District School Board projected to be underutilized next year, according to the “secondary identified schools” report presented to the board at the June 27 board meeting.
The annual report compares projected enrolment figures and the overall student capacity at each school.
Each school is then identified as overcapacity, underutilized or neither for the next school year. Overcrowded schools have a utilization rate of 110 per cent or higher and underutilized schools have a utilization rate of 80% or lower.
For Norwell the projected utilization rate is 68% and for Wellington Heights it is 74%.
The report states that both schools are projected to remain underutilized from 2017-18 to 2021-22.
This is the fifth year in a row Norwell is included in the underutilized category, despite Centre Peel Secondary School students joining the population in September 2016. There are more than 200 vacant spaces.
“It may be appropriate for staff to review the potential for partnership opportunities at Norwell DSS in the fall of 2017,” the report states.
Neither Erin District High School (87%) nor Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus (81%) are over or undercrowded.
However, enrolment is projected to decline at CWDHS, which could result in underutilization by 2019-20, the report states.
In total 18% (2) of the UGDSB high schools are projected to be overcrowded, 18% (2) are projected to be undercrowded and 64% (7) are projected to be neither.
