The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board (KPRDS) is launching an accommodation review for several school catchment areas to address changing student enrolment.
According to a board report issued this week, enrolment within the board has been growing by roughly 2% per year over the last five years; a trend that is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. The growth is not evenly distributed among the schools, so the board is examining enrolment forecasts to determine the best way to accommodate students within existing facilities and seek support for new ones in the future.
Student population in the Crestwood Secondary School catchment area is among those creating the most pressure. At Millbrook South Cavan Public School (MSC), there are currently 624 students enrolled at a facility with the capacity for 447. There are currently eight portables on site and according to the Board Facilities Services, this location can accommodate four more. MSC’s student body is expected to stabilize at roughly 660 for the next three years, assuming no new developments come on stream. Should these new homes materialize, the report projects they will bring an additional 232 elementary students to the area over the next five to ten years.
In 2019, the decision was made to move Millbrook Grades 7 and 8 students into Crestwood as part of a new, intermediate school to alleviate enrolment pressures that were already building. At the time, Crestwood’s High School population was roughly 683 in a facility with a capacity of 933. The intermediate school brought an additional 130 students to Crestwood from Millbrook, Kawartha Heights, North Cavan and Westmount public schools, temporarily alleviating some of the pressure in Millbrook.
Enrolment is currently significantly above rated capacity at North Cavan Public School as well. The report indicates that the school population at North Cavan is currently 195, which is 50% above the current capacity of 130. North Cavan enrolment is projected to decline slightly over the next few years, stabilizing at 171 by 2030.
Kawartha Heights and Westmount schools have stable enrolment falling slightly below their capacity. Enrolment at James Strath, the fifth Crestwood feeder school, is projected to decline slightly in the next few years. It is currently operating at 20% below capacity.
At this week’s board meeting, KPRDS members considered relocating Grade 7 students from Westmount and Kawartha Heights public schools to attend James Strath beginning in September 2024. Community consultation meetings with each school will form part of this decision process. This move would reduce the pressure at Crestwood in the immediate term, but would not address the long term growth in Cavan Monaghan’s student enrolment. No decision was available prior to the print deadline.
In the meantime, the board has submitted another request for a new school in Millbrook for a 5.5 acre site located on the north side of Fallis Line behind the community centre. They are asking for an elementary school serving a student population of 481 junior kindergarten to Grade 8 students as well as a four-room child care facility. A previous request for a smaller school was declined in 2020 when the grades seven and eight students were relocated to Crestwood. A key consideration for the proposal is the availability of services. Hydro has committed to power being available by next spring.
Enrolment forecasts indicate that the community will need both schools to meet the growing school population, but how the grades are distributed between the two buildings will be subject to further investigation as well as community consultation. The first step is to get the green light for the facility. KG
