'Not ideal for anyone': Regina Public Schools to move 200 students from Harbour Landing School
The Regina Public School Board has endorsed the school division’s proposal to have 200 students change schools next year.
The students will be moved from Harbour Landing School to Ethel Millken School. The schools are about two kilometres apart.
Harbour Landing School has a capacity of 675. As of March 15, there were 1,055 students enrolled, according to Regina Public Schools (RPS).
Because of overcrowding, RPS administration proposed a plan to temporarily divert 200 students from Harbour Landing School to Ethel Milliken School based on a boundary alteration.
“We legitimately cannot run an educational program with as many students as we have right now, if not more,” Darren Boldt, the director of education for Regina Public Schools, said.
At its meeting on Tuesday, the Regina Public School Board endorsed the move, meaning the change will officially happen.
“It’s certainly not ideal for anyone to consider a boundary change, but I feel the school division has been put in a place where essentially they’re forced to make tough decisions,” Tara Molson, the chair of the school board, said.
Throughout the month of March, RPS collected feedback from parents about the proposal through open houses, forms and emails.
Some concerns that were voiced included potential social and psychological impacts on students who would have to leave their friends, change the distance from their homes to school and disappointment in ongoing delays with a new school being built in Harbour Landing.
Community members also offered their own suggestions to combat the problem. Some of those included limiting the number of incoming students and moving one or more grades out of Harbour Landing School.
“We absolutely considered each piece of feedback,” Boldt said.
“We worked through each individual suggestion, looked at the pros, looked at the cons. Some of the suggestions are just not doable, with all due respect to the community that provided that feedback, it just wasn’t doable. We were left with very limited options.”
The boundary alterations will take effect at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. They will stay in place until the new school in Harbour Landing is complete.
That build is expected to take about three years.
“It’ll be on the west side of the existing Harbour Landing sub-development, so it’ll be adjacent to where the community has already been developed,” Education Minister Dustin Duncan said.
“SaskBuilds is working on a design as we speak and we look forward to hopefully breaking ground later this year.”
The City of Regina said an update will be announced at some point throughout the week on the new school build.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.