Charlottetown schools make room for Spring Park

Four schools in Charlottetown will open their doors to take in students from Spring Park Elementary, which was closed on Friday due to mould contamination.

It was one of two schools, along with Morell Consolidated, closed last week. Both schools may not open again until September. The students are out of school entirely until next Tuesday, when they will move to their temporary classrooms.

About 400 people crowded into the cafeteria at Colonel Grey High School Monday night to find out where their children would be going.

Spring Park is one of the larger elementary schools in the city, the centre of French immersion, so accommodating the 410 students is a challenge. Eastern School District superintendent Ricky Hood said his staff wanted to keep all the students as close to Spring Park as possible.

Most of the students will move to Birchwood Intermediate, which has cleared away a whole floor for grades four to six from Spring Park. Administration offices for the school will also move to Birchwood.

The move has some parents worried Spring Park will lose its sense of community. Kali Simmond's children will now be heading off to three different schools.

"I feel sad because the essence of a school is not the building, it's the people all together," said Simmonds.

"If you could keep the people together I think that would make a world of difference in this situation."

Simmonds suggested all the kids should be moved into St. Jean and the 180 St. Jean students should go to another school. Hood responded that would only create further problems.

"It's another inconvenience to go into that building that's receiving students and say that Spring Park students would like you to move over to some other neighbouring school, and now we've displaced instead of 410, closer to 600 students," he said.

Busing from old school

Transportation is also an issue. To ease confusion, Spring Park Elementary will continue to be used as a school bus hub. Students will be picked up at their normal locations and taken to Spring Park, where they will transfer to another bus that will take them to their new school. Students who normally walk to school will also go to Spring Park to catch a bus.

The bus transfers mean students will arrive later at school and leave earlier. Hood said a shorter lunch break will help make up that time, adding school officials will be watching how that works out.

Several parents expressed concern about how information on the problems at Spring Park have been communicated to parents, and how they will learn about the status of repairs at the school.

Hood said the school district will be open as the renovations proceed.

"Any information we get, we will be sharing that," he said.

A similar meeting is planned Tuesday night for parents of Morell Consolidated students, 7 p.m. at Morell High School.