Centre Wellington boundary and program changes approved
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
February 26, 2009
GUELPH, Ontario — After deferring a decision on boundary and program changes for seven Centre Wellington elementary schools from the December board meeting to the February meeting, trustees approved changes to move the French Immersion (FI) program into two schools (currently it’s in three schools), create a new grade 7-8 program and to adjust various school boundaries to have children living in Fergus attending Fergus schools, beginning in September 2009.
The deferral decision was made for a number of reasons. At the December meeting, a number of additional grandfathering amendments were placed by the local trustee, David Gohn. As a result of this, and to provide parents with more time to consult in the choice of the two preferred options, as well as have a staff report prepared, the decision was deferred to the February board meeting. At the January board meeting, trustees directed staff to develop the requested report and present it at the February meeting. The report was to respond to the community’s requests and delegations, consider the cost and implications on transportation and on future reviews, and consider the implications of retaining a status quo position for the foreseeable future.
After considering the additional staff report, and the community responses, the original preferred scenario with the phasing in of the changes, and grandfathering of students (FI and regular track) in their last year of a program at any school, was approved by the trustees. The additional grandfathering amendments from Trustee Gohn were not adopted.
For French Immersion Students:
- grade 7 and 8 FI students move from Elora PS to JD Hogarth PS, with the current grade 7 FI students grandfatherd for one year at Elora
- grade 5 and 6 FI students at James McQueen, also move to JD Hogarth
- JK to grade 2 FI students at John Black PS move to James McQueen.
This meets the goal of having the FI program housed in only two schools (JD Hogarth and James McQueen).
For Regular Track (RT) Students:
- students graduating from Grade 6 at John Black and Victoria Terrace will no longer feed into JD Hogarth
- John Black grade 6 grads stay at John Black and are joined by the graduates from Victoria Terrace.
This decreases the ratio of grade 7 and 8 students at Elora and JD Hogarth, and creates the new JK to grade 8 school (John Black). John Black will be a JK to grade 7 school in 2009-10 and a full JK to grade 8 school the following year.
Other boundary changes affect the following students:
- All JK to grade 8 children from Black Street and Revell Drive (Fergus), currently bussed to Salem and Elora, will attend James McQueen (JK-6) and JD Hogarth (7-8).
- All JK to grade 6 children from Watt, Harvey and Walkers streets currently bussed to John Black will attend JD Hogarth with grade 7 and 8 students from those areas.
- All JK to grade 6 children from Denny Gate, Darroch Way and Scotland Street now bussed to John Black will attend JD Hogarth with grade 7 and 8 students from that area.
In these changes, all existing regular track grade 5 students entering grade 6 at John Black and Salem schools will be grandfathered, and where eligible, be offered transportation, as will all regular track grade 7 students entering grade 8 at Elora.
The amendments presented by trustee Gohn sought to have the current students living in these areas grandfathered into their existing schools (Salem and John Black), until they graduated, but were not approved by the board. In the adopted plan, only the current grade 5 and 7 students will be grandfathered.
For more information
Maggie McFadzen, Communications Officer, 519-822-4420, ext. 725
[email protected]
Categories: Media Releases