Some 300 students may have to switch
Winnipeg Free Press
Friday May 27 2005
By Nick Martin
CLOSE to 300 students living in West Kildonan may not be able to attend the new West Kildonan Collegiate when it opens in 2007.
As many as 10 elementary and middle years schools may see their boundaries change in a chain reaction set off by the new school, Seven Oaks School Division superintendent Brian O'Leary said yesterday.
The current WKC is at 1874 Main St., on the site of the former Edmund Partridge and Centennial schools. The new high school will be built several kilometers north, in the Riverbend subdivision off Main, just south of the Perimeter.
The new collegiate will have a capacity of 750 students, O'Leary said. However, without changes to the current boundaries, the division forecasts an enrolment of 1,035 students two years from now.
"Part of the discussion with the community is to realign catchment areas," he said.
Newsletters distributed as part of the initial community consultation cautioned that some students living in West Kildonan may live closer to Garden City Collegiate when the new WKC opens. "We've closed West Kildonan Collegiate to schools of choice students," O'Leary pointed out. Both Garden City and Maples Collegiate have room to accommodate additional students, he said.
O'Leary said serious consultation will get under way this fall, and could ultimately affect the catchment areas -- the neighbourhood within which a resident is guaranteed a space in a specific school -- of as many as 10 schools.
O'Leary said that when the collegiate leaves 1874 Main St., the former Centennial School wing will be demolished, and the former Edmund Partridge portion will become a middle years school, to ease overcrowding at Seven Oaks Middle School and Ecole Leila North.
Both schools now have French immersion, but the division may choose to have a stronger immersion program by concentrating it in one school -- which would cause further shifts between and among schools.
Seven Oaks School Division has told parents and students that the boundary changes may eventually also affect Belmont, Riverbend, Margaret Park, Victory, Governor Semple and West St. Paul schools, and the French immersion programs at Constable Finney and James Nisbet.
"Where we have a squeeze is middle years," O'Leary said. "We have portables at Seven Oaks and Leila North." The initial reaction from the community has been a clear message that parents do not want to see overcrowding handled by creating a grades seven to 12 school anywhere in the division, he said. "There's been strong positive support for continuing with separate middle years and high schools -- it allows kids to be kids a while longer," he said.
O'Leary said that the new West Kildonan Collegiate will be designed with a central performing arts and open area that will be named in honour of former student Randy Bachman. Plans were announced last school year to honour Bachman at the current WKC site.