Student enrolment will be restricted at several more Prince George schools starting in September as School District No. 57 (SD57) deals with catchment and capacity issues.
The SD57 board of education voted Tuesday to add Peden Hill Elementary to the list of schools where enrolment is restricted to catchment area students only and remove Duchess Park Secondary from the list
They also voted to limit Kindergarten enrolment to no more than 20 students at College Heights Elementary in the French Immersion Program, no more than 40 at Polaris Montessori and no more than 60 at Ecole Lac des Bois.
There are now 14 local schools where enrolment is restricted to catchment area students only: Beaverly, College Heights Secondary, College Heights Elementary, Edgewood, Glenview, Hart Highlands, Harwin, Heritage, Malaspina, Peden Hill, Ron Brent, Southridge, Springwood, and Vanway.
Peden Hill Elementary has an operating capacity of 205 and a current enrolment of 264. In 2019, the Catchment and Capacity Committee recognized enrolment at Peden Hill required monitoring and suggested that catchment areas for Peden Hill, Westwood and Pinewood be reviewed.
Assistant Superintendent Kap Manhas said that the increase in enrolment at Peden Hill happened very quickly and there’s been an influx of students, whereas they had more warning about capacity issues at Springwood Elementary.
Springwood Elementary is facing challenges as the capacity for that school is 205 and enrolment is 274. The additional capacity has been accommodated by the addition of two portables at the school.
“So 20 to 22 spaces for Kindergarten, and last year, they had 38 students apply for kindergarten registration. So, we're anticipating a lottery system again, for Kindergarten registration this coming year,” said Trustee Sarah Holland.
The committee warned that if no change is made for the Springwood Elementary School boundaries for the 2025/26 school year then it will not be possible to accommodate all of the Kindergarten registrations.
“There's a long-range facilities plan and that work is going to be occurring from late January to April and that would be looking more at to see what our options are for that particular catchment from that particular school,” said Holland.
While Duchess Park Secondary is no longer over capacity, DPSS has a capacity of 900 students with the current enrolment at 510 in the regular program and 371 in the French Immersion program, which totals 881 students.
SD57 has been taking efforts to restrict enrolment at DPSS since 2017 in response to enrolment projections of 1,200. The rationale is that the flexibility in enrolment at DPSS may help to relieve some capacity issues at D.P. Todd Secondary.
