Winnipeg Free Press
Saturday December 4 2004
By Nick Martin
NEXT fall's Grade 9 class could be shifted from overcrowded Linden Meadows School to Shaftesbury High School, Pembina Trails School Division superintendent Paul Moreau said.
And some older students at Van Walleghem School could be moved to old Fort Garry or Charleswood by September 2006.
"That certainly is an option," Moreau said.
Pembina Trails has begun consulting parents about ways to ease crowding in packed suburban schools, Moreau said.
"The community has until the middle of December to provide the (school) board with written feedback. We will conduct that review right after Christmas," he said.
"For the next year, we've got some capital issues we have to address. Housing developments are going to continue into the foreseeable future," Moreau said. The Doer government has refused to build new schools, or expand crammed schools, in suburban subdivisions such as Lindenwoods or Whyte Ridge, as long as there are empty seats elsewhere in a school division.
Moving the Grade 9 class to Shaftesbury appears to be the only shift necessary by next fall, Moreau said: "The other movement of students, we feel we don't have to engage in for next year."
Henry G. Izatt Middle School in Whyte Ridge is beyond its capacity, Moreau said, but Pembina Trails will live with that situation. The divisions feels HGI enrolment has peaked, though it will remain over capacity for two more years before enrolment begins to fall.
The big problem is how many kids will move into the 400-plus homes in Linden Ridge, and what courses they will choose, he said.
"A big question for us is the number of students from the new Linden Ridge area that will opt for French immersion" at Van Walleghem. "We don't have hard numbers."
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca