Kristy Moonie came home from the school board meeting Tuesday night with good news for her daughter Casey.
She and her three-years-older brother Max will be attending the same high school next fall, after School District 57 trustees adjusted the new catchment area policy to allow siblings from feeder elementary schools, Edgewood and Spruceland Traditional, to attend Duchess Park secondary in 2020-21.
“We were very worried and that’s why we were here, to show our support, and we’re very thankful for the trustees who were in favour of carrying the motion getting our kids into Duchess so they can stay with their siblings,” said Kristy Moonie, who was among a group of Edgewood parents at the meeting.
“It’s super-important to keep families together. We’re glad it happened tonight. Our older son is definitely the protector of our daughter and he’s going to help her with that transition going into Grade 8.”
The new catchment area boundaries approved last month by School District 57, which would have required all graduating students from Spruceland Traditional and Edgewood schools to attend D.P. Todd secondary, will not apply to siblings of students already enrolled at Duchess Park.
The motion to grant the sibling exception was introduced by trustee Sharel Warrington and was supported by trustees Shuirose Valimohamed, Bob Thompson and board chair Tim Bennett. Trustees Ron Polillo, Betty Bekkering and Trent Derrick voted against the motion.
Ten students now in Grade 7 at Spruceland and eight at Edgewood have siblings at Duchess Park and Warrington agrees the decision will temporarily push the limits of the school’s capacity next year.
“There is always movement of students coming in and going out of a program and it will make a difference for sure, keeping in mind this is for one year only,” said Warrington. “Therefore, it will give families an opportunity to make additional plans for the coming years. The importance of this was to enable siblings to be able to stay together when they transition from Grade 7 to 8 for this coming year.
“Following that, we’ll have a better idea where we’re going with development at D.P. Todd. We’re hoping to have an expansion there and there are other factors in place come the following year.”
Polillo has two of his own children affected by the current policy and enrolment caps which resulted in one attending Duchess Park and the other at D.P. Todd, but stands by the board’s vote at the Nov. 6 public meeting to change the catchment areas.
“We made a very tough bold decision at the last board meeting to really address the capacity issue at Duchess Park and I felt that this motion was not consistent with what we tried to accomplish last month,” said Polillo.
“The second objection was the fact this motion seemed to have long-term implications. The fact this could have a four-year ramification to the district was problematic. To me, this decision to vote against it was for the betterment of all students in the district.”
Bennett’s amendment to the motion would have limited the grandfathering clause to students from Edgewood and Spruceland coming to Duchess Park only in the 2020-21 calendar year, but that was defeated by the board. As it stands now, once students are registered at Duchess, for as long as they attend the school, their younger siblings can also attend once they leave Edgewood or Spruceland.
SD 57 secretary-treasurer Darleen Patterson informed the board there is a bubble effect expected in the two feeder elementary schools with the number of students in Grades 5, 6 and 7 expected to worsen crowding at Duchess Park and D.P. Todd.
Valimohamed suggested a way for Duchess Park to accommodate more students is if it took over a school district building adjacent to the school currently leased to the Prince George Youth Soccer Association as an indoor soccer centre.
