Some parents of French immersion students in the Sooke School District fear their programs could be moved to other schools, as the district launches a review of catchment areas — the designated neighbourhoods around schools that students are drawn from.
Cendra Beaton, who has a daughter in middle school and a son in elementary — both in French immersion — said the review could mean that French immersion moves from Belmont Secondary to Royal Bay Secondary, which recently underwent a $30-million addition. More room is needed at Belmont, which has four portables.
“It definitely is a space thing,” said Beaton, president of the Sooke Parents’ Education Advisory Council.
She noted that some parents buy homes near French immersion schools, so uprooting a program is hard on them. Parents are wondering if transportation will be guaranteed if programs like French immersion are moved, she said.
“The more we hear from parents the better, because then we’re able to represent the full spectrum of needs across the district,” Beaton said.
The district has been gathering input on the catchment boundaries through an online survey at sd62.bc.ca, along with meetings with parent advisory councils and a virtual town hall.
Adjustments to catchments in the district — the fastest-growing per capita in the province — are needed because of growth and the addition of two new schools in September 2022 that will require designated catchment areas.
Pexisen Elementary School will have a capacity of 500 students, while Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School will have room for 700. Both are on Constellation Avenue in Langford’s Westhills area.
The district, with about 11,300 students, expects to add about 300 students a year over the next 15 years. The last time a catchment review took place in the district was more than a decade ago.
District superintendent Scott Stinson said the new schools are the biggest factor in the catchment review, and will mean some recasting of boundaries around neighbouring schools.
“We have to look at creating catchment for these schools, now and as development happens around them, and than balancing out enrolment across our schools, as well, to the best extent that we can, so that we don’t have some schools sitting empty while others are overflowing.”
In one case, Millstream Elementary has five portables to accommodate demand, so moving French immersion from there to Crystal View Elementary would help to balance school populations, at least in the short term, Stinson said.
He said it’s hoped that results of the review go to the school board in December, and changes go into effect in September 2022.
“We want to make sure families have lots of notice about what it will look like as they make decisions.”
The Greater Victoria School District completed a similar catchment review in 2019. The yearlong process resulted in South Park Family School and Cloverdale Traditional School being turned into neighbourhood catchment schools from specialty destination schools, to the disappointment of some parents.
It was the first catchment review done in the district of about 20,000 students in 20 years.
