Revisions to the school district's policy on catchment areas and student transfers will be taken through a consultation process.
Although considered minor changes, school board trustees allowed the move on Tuesday night because there is some controversy, particularly over how out-of-catchment kindergarten students are treated.
One of the proposed changes calls for adopting a "first-come, first-served" approach and doing away with giving priority to children who have a sibling in an out-of-catchment school, and that drew concerns from parents during the public input segment of Tuesday night's meeting.
A parent with a child in one catchment and one in another will be greatly inconvenienced, warned College Heights elementary school parent advisory council president Barbara Otter and will create a race to register online.
"If I do not type quick enough or if my technology is not facilitated for high speed, I will have two children in two different schools plus myself to get to work in half-an-hour," she told trustees.
Trustees will be facing some tough decisions, said trustee Lois Boone.
"This is a right versus right decision," she said. "You sort of have to weigh which right is righter."
Trustee Valentine Crawford, who chairs the policy and governance committee, said the revisions are being proposed in response to concerns raised by French immersion parents last spring about the clarity of the policy.
Other proposed changes include make the catchments district wide for the Aboriginal choice school, Central Fort George traditional school and Ecole Lac Du Bois.
Following the consultation process, trustees plan to approve final revisions at their January 29 meeting.
