The public school board is proposing school boundary changes that will affect French immersion students living south of the river and will also have a major impact on the west end’s Paisley Road school.
A report containing school board staff’s final recommendations on boundaries for a new school on Zaduk Place goes to a meeting of the board’s business operations committee on March 19. It then goes to a March 26 school board meeting for a final decision.
The new south end school on Zaduk Place, which is to open in September 2014, will be a junior kindergarten to Grade 8 French immersion centre housing about 450 students.
Its proposed JK-6 attendance area is bounded by Stone Road, Gordon Street and Clair Road and includes a small part of the Township of Puslinch. Its Grade 7 and 8 program will also draw students graduating from Fred A. Hamilton school, a French immersion centre that would get a new JK-6 boundary in 2014.
The most dramatic impact of the Zaduk school boundary review is on Paisley Road school, a JK-6 school that teaches both FI students and students in the regular English program.
Paisley Road would lose all of its French immersion students in Grades 4 to 6 under the plan, as well as some of its FI students in junior kindergarten to Grade 3. They’d go to John McCrae school starting in September 2014, which is when Paisley Road gets full-day kindergarten.
Under the plan, Paisley Road school’s FI students in JK-3 who live east of Edinburgh Road would be reassigned gradually to John McCrae. The new staff report outlines “various grandparenting and sibling options” for families living in this “transition area” bounded by Edinburgh, London Road and the Speed River, a board news release said.
The boundary review aims to create a sustainable JK-8 FI program for the new Zaduk Place school and also to relieve enrolment pressure at John McCrae, Fred A. Hamilton and Paisley Road. Enrolment is on the rise due to the implementation of full-day kindergarten and significant growth in the FI program, the release said.
The Upper Grand District School Board staff report proposes that John McCrae, a JK-8 French immersion centre, would have different attendance areas for its JK-3 students and its Grade 4-8 students.
Enrolment pressure at John McCrae would be relieved not only by the opening of the new Zaduk Place school, but also by the start of a Grade 7 FI program at King George school in 2014, the release said.
King George, a rebuilt school west of John F. Ross Collegiate that will become a JK-8 French immersion centre in 2014, will add Grade 8 in 2015, further relieving enrolment pressure at John McCrae.
King George will be taking Grade 7 and 8 FI students from Victory and Edward Johnson schools, as well as from its own JK-6 attendance area.
One key concern for parents since the board announced in January that it was considering shifting many Paisley Road school  students to John McCrae – which is just south of the river on Water Street – is the safety of students walking to John McCrae, the release said. The new staff report, which is posted on the board’s website, says parents are concerned about their children having to cross busy streets like Wellington and Edinburgh to get to John McCrae.
Wellington-Dufferin-Student Transportation Services, which handles local school busing, will be reviewing any safety issues and will determine transportation eligibility and recommended walking routes by January 2014, the release said.