Board to vote on busing Paradise students to St. John's

The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District's board of trustees will meet on Monday night to decide if some students at Holy Family Elementary in Paradise will be bused to a school in St. John's in September.  

• Paradise parents demand solutions to school overcrowding
• Some Holy Family students may be bused to St. John's, waiting for new school 

There are 858 students enrolled at Holy Family Elementary, and that number is expected to go above 900 next year. The school can comfortably accommodate 600 students. 

Meanwhile, a new elementary school is slated to open in Paradise in September 2016.

Trustees will choose one of two options on Monday night.  

The first option is to bus students in grades two to six to the former School for the Deaf in St. John's. 

Only students slated to attend the new Paradise school in Octagon Pond would be affected. Kindergarten and Grade 1 students zoned for the new school would remain at Holy Family until that school is opened. 

The alternative plan is to add four modular classrooms to Holy Family Elementary for use in September. 

Monday night's board meeting will be held at the district conference centre on Strawberry Marsh Road in St. John's.

More than 200 frustrated parents attended a board meeting on rezoning back in February — many opposed the idea of busing students to St. John's.