The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board has redrawn the boundaries for its eastern schools, to create a catchment for the new South Albion elementary.
The changes, confirmed last week, came after a public consultation that included an open house and an online survey, and will take effect when the new elementary school opens, scheduled for Sept. 2019, at 104th Avenue just east of 240th Street.
The school district received a total of 420 responses during its public consultation process, in which it presented parents with three options. The board selected one, then made revisions to its boundaries to address issues raised by parents, said Irena Pochop, with the school district.
To address common concerns, the Jackson Ridge and Slatford Place neighbourhoods have been added to the catchment for the new school.
The small area north of 112th Avenue and west of 240th Street, which currently lies in the Blue Mountain catchment, has been returned to the Alexander Robinson elementary catchment, taking additional pressure of Blue Mountain.
Pochop said the board responded to the feedback it received, but she acknowledged there are some people who live close to the new school and Albion Elementary near 240th Street who will still fall in the Whonnock elementary catchment, and that school is east of 272nd Street.
“There is always going to be somebody living on the boundary,” she said.
Parent Amanda Libby noted she is “Super disappointed that part of my street is in catchment for the new school and the other half isn’t.”
Libby has a child in kindergarten who starts school in two years, and her catchment will be Webster’s Corners. She lives near the corner of Godwin Drive and Charmichael, but not quite far enough south on Charmichael to be in the new school catchment.
“I’m seconds away,” she said.
So she will have to drive two kids to Samuel Robertson Technical, then turn around and drive her youngest child to Webster’s Corners.
Another parent, Hanna Koekman, said she can’t go to the schools closest to her home.
“Half of these school catchments don’t even make sense. It’s so frustrating that we have three schools within a 20-minute walk to our house, but instead have to walk 45 minutes one direction to walk my Grade 3s to school,” she wrote online.
Parents can apply for admission to schools other than the catchment they are in.
The new school, which has not been named, will be the largest in the area, with a capacity of 616 students. The next largest is Kanaka Creek elementary with a capacity of 542.
The school will have an estimated 647 students living in its catchment, which is greater than its capacity, but Pochop explained this is not a concern to the district, because parents drive their children to schools of choice such as French Immersion or the Environmental School. The district does not anticipate all parents living in the new school catchment will take their children out of neighbouring schools such as Albion and Blue Mountain elementary, where they have already started school.
Pre-registration for the new school begins June 2018 on the parent portal. Details about this process, including the exact date, will be communicated in the coming weeks on the school district website and to parents through the parent portal.