Eastern Passage school review recommends grade reorganization

A parent-led committee that examined schools in Eastern Passage, N.S., is recommending a reorganization of some grades to balance the numbers of students per classroom and per school.

There is no recommendation to close any schools in the area.

The Halifax Regional School board began a review of four Eastern Passage schools in Dec. 2015 to look at their long-term outlook.

The schools are Eastern Passage Education Centre (EPEC), Ocean View Elementary, Seaside Elementary and Tallahassee Community School.

Based on statistics from the school board, the committee concluded that one of the Primary to Grade 4 schools, Tallahassee Community School, is currently being overused while the other schools are being underused. Some students at Tallahassee are using a portable unit as a classroom.

Current vs. proposed configuration

The committee held three public meetings to gather input between March and May on the current configuration, which is:

•  EPEC: English, early French immersion and late French immersion for grades 7 to 9
•  Tallahassee: English for grades Primary to 4 and early French immersion for grades Primary to 3
•  Oceanview: English for grades Primary to 4
•  Seaside: English for grades 5 and 6 and early French immersion for grades 4 to 6

The committee recommended the new configuration should be:

• EPEC: Grades 6 to 8 for English and French
• Tallahassee: Grades Primary to 3 for English and French
• Oceanview: Grades Primary to 3 for English
• Seaside: Grades 4 and 5 for English and French

Grade 9 students would move to a new high school, which the province has approved for construction. 

34 students affected

The committee also recommended a boundary change that would move some of Tallahassee's catchment area to Ocean View. The affected neighbourhoods include Birch Hills Estates, Greenridge Mobile Home Park and the Hornes Road area.

Committee chair Dominique Duchesne said the changes would mean only 34 students out of approximately 1,500 would have to move to a new school.

Committee facilitator Kathy Jourdain said minimizing disruption to students is a priority for the committee.

Jourdain says the committee members looked at school data, census data, and child tax credit information to determine that a limited number of students would be affected by the changes.

"We were looking at projections up to 2023 to kind of understand what the movement of students through those schools would be," she said.

Changes would happen in 2018

The recommendation will now go to Halifax Regional School Board, which will make the final decision on the committee's report. If approved, the changes would begin to take place in 2018. 

Jourdain said this is the first time a school review process has used professional facilitators to engage the community.

With approximately 25 to 30 people at the meetings, she said the turnout was lower than the committee hoped, but those who did attend gave positive feedback about the process.