chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

School Boundaries

I'm surrounded by quite a few angry parents, as they changed a school's boundaries.  It's been open a year, and they just decided to exclude have the neighbourhood from any new kids, the neighbourhood that's across the street is kicked out and various other areas are affected.  If we had kids, they would get to go, whereas people who live closer can't.

 

When I moved at the end of grade 1, I couldn't get into my neighbourhood school even thoiugh that was my designated school.  I couldn't get into the 2nd, or 3rd schools.  I was on the 3rd backup.  My sister went to the same one as I, even though she was starting right in kindergarten.  We moved too late for her to be registered soon enough.  There, no kids from outside the designated area were allowed in, but living in the designated area wasn't good enough, you had to be registered for K soon enough, otherwise you were on a waiting list and chances are it was far from the top of that list.

 

I didn't mind the bus, but did not enjoy going to a different jr. high than about 97% (my guess, I think there were about 100 of us, 2 others came with me) of my grade 6 classmates.

Share this

Comments

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

How does it work in your area?

Are schools overcrowded or lacking numbers?

Mendalla's picture

Mendalla

image

Here, school population seems to be shrinking and boards that were struggling to find space when I moved to London are now downsizing.

 

For instance, in the school Little M went to for Grades 7 & 8 (it's actually a K-8 school, but he only went for the last two years because of a gifted program they have) they had to renovate to accomodate students from a nearby school that was being closed. The students who formerly attended that school are divided up between his old school and another school, which had to expand from being a K-6 school to a full K-8 school because of the change. So, basically went from three schools (2 K-8 & 1 K-6) down to two (both K-8) in that area. Not sure what they did with the teachers.

 

OTOH, the Catholic Board seems to still be expanding and opened a new high school at the start of the school year.

 

Mendalla

 

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

Interesting Mendalla.  Here, they are kicking out the Catholic kids as they are 'out of district'.  Older areas have declining numbers, until a bunch of kids are bussed from a newer area.  My old elementary school was overcrowded while the neighbourhood had a decent number of kids, most of the students were from neighbourhoods a fair distance away.

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

I'm also really scratching my head and I don't have a kid in the game.  I'll try to paint a picture.

 

The school is at the south end of the neighbourhood.  The houses that the front of the school faces aren't on the same street and are in a different neighbourhood.

 

The neighbourhood is comprised of different areas.  One of the areas was done by a different developer, they pay different HOA fees (if at all) and don't have access to the resident's association.  They have expensive houses, and are included for the school.

 

The street splitting the neighbourhood into east/west actually borders the school.  Houses that back onto the field aren't included.  This area has all of the estates, the other group of houses that are the most expensive.  All of these people pay HOA fees to the resident's association..

 

This school is K-9, as is another slated for the area (Catholic).  When they were looking at excluding certain grades, it was the K&1, rather than the 7-9.  For now though, they have decided to stick to K-9.

Mendalla's picture

Mendalla

image

chemgal wrote:

Interesting Mendalla.  Here, they are kicking out the Catholic kids as they are 'out of district'.  Older areas have declining numbers, until a bunch of kids are bussed from a newer area.  My old elementary school was overcrowded while the neighbourhood had a decent number of kids, most of the students were from neighbourhoods a fair distance away.

 

How does Alberta operate, though? Here, we have separate boards in each area for Public and Catholic, both with full tax funding, and sometimes separate French boards where there are enough French-speaking students.

 

Technically speaking, you're supposed to go to the school based on your religion but since receiving full funding, the Catholic boards have been required to accept non-Catholic students where space allows but with the proviso that they still have to take religion class.

 

Little M has a friend in a small community with only two high schools, one public and one Catholic, and his friend ended up going to the Catholic one even though his family is Salvation Army because the public high school is allegedly a bit of a cesspool right now (drugs, gangs, etc.)

 

Mendalla

 

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

It's similar here wtih publically funded Catholic and public boards.  Someone else did a better explanation earlier, as some of the specific definitions confuse me.  I think you declare yourself public or separate for taxes.  Parents are able to change what they declared and then their kids may stay.

 

I know Catholic schools sometimes take non-Catholic kids when their numbers are low, but I don't think they are forced to.  At my jr. high & high school there were a number of students who were expelled from multiple schools and we were stuck with them as they had to be allowed to go to school and the Catholic schools wouldn't take them even though they were Catholic.  Rules could have very well changed, and that was a different city, so different school boards.

Tabitha's picture

Tabitha

image

Alberta has catholic and non-catholic public schools (K-12). Then they have francophone catholic and non catholic.

Taxes revenue are distributed on basis of enrollment-it really does not depend on what you put on your tax form.

The school boards no longer have the power to set school taxes. All done at the provincial level.

Many schools have open boundaries-as the more student they enroll the more $ they get. Usually the Catholic and Non-catholic boards have a reciprocal agreement. They tend to take each others students UNLESS a designation ie special ed is involved.  Designated students often cost the school more $ then they bring in and so they usually go to their home board.

 

And  so Chemgal-you will find the lines being drawn and re-drawn as the school board attempt to get the right mix from overcrowded to not enough students at your nearby school and some other ones.

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

Thanks Tabitha.

 

The lines drawn just seem like an odd split.  N/S would make more sense due to the location, or at least cutting out the separate area in the neighbourhood as a start.  The E/W line being drawn on a street of the actual school is what's lost me!

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

The parents posting on FB are also confused about the definition of catholic or not.  Some seem to think that it's choosing to send 100% of the school taxes to the Catholic board.  I don't know what other info the schools would have, but about 50 kids are considered out of district at the school as they are Catholic.  Another 350 don't live in this neighbourhood and won't be let in next year.

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/insight/school-capacities/index.html

Interactive maps for the 2 boards that shows which schools overcrowding & underuse.

lastpointe's picture

lastpointe

image

Popular schools in toronto have waiting lists for out of district kids. My brother lives in a suburb where the line to be in or out of the school is similar to what you describe. I think it always happens when one side of the street becomes a different district but I guess lines have to be somewhere

Jim Kenney's picture

Jim Kenney

image

There are angry parents near us that used to be automatically included in the first priority for the school in our district.  Their children were bused to the school.  An adjacent community is partly closer to the school than their part of the community.  The school board drew up a new walk zone which includes all those areas from either community that are walking distance to the school.  The school does not have enough room for the walk zone students and all of the students from the community in the bus zone, so the bus zone students go into a lottery draw.

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

lastpointe wrote:
I think it always happens when one side of the street becomes a different district but I guess lines have to be somewhere

 

I get that a line has to be somewhere.  I'm just surprised they would place that line so close to the school.

 

Ie.  If a school is on 10th street, and it's fields go from 9-11 St, it would make more sense to include kids from 6-14 St so those who are across the street from the school property can attend then to shift it over 9-16 St excluding the kids who live directly across the street from the field.  Or at least that's how my mind works, especially when those streets are all in one neighbourhood.

chemgal's picture

chemgal

image

Jim Kenney wrote:

There are angry parents near us that used to be automatically included in the first priority for the school in our district.  Their children were bused to the school.  An adjacent community is partly closer to the school than their part of the community.  The school board drew up a new walk zone which includes all those areas from either community that are walking distance to the school.  The school does not have enough room for the walk zone students and all of the students from the community in the bus zone, so the bus zone students go into a lottery draw.

Sounds like there are quite a few methods being used within the province.

Back to Parenting topics
cafe