Greater Victoria School District is in the process of a district-wide catchment boundary review with a goal of implementing the new boundaries for September of 2020.
SD61 projects an increase of 1,800 students over the next 10 years.
The district is reviewing all catchment boundaries to address increasing enrolment and the capacity constraints it will create, said superintendent Shelley Green.
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“The district needs to ensure that we can accommodate student growth in the coming years … We need to be prepared and balance student projections with space availability.”
The school district’s last catchment boundary review was 20 years ago when SD61 created middle schools for Grades 6 to 8.
Consultation for the new review is underway, with a survey going out to the public due back by November. There is a deadline to have revised map proposals brought before the SD61 operations and planning committee by January.
Following that, there would be another round of public consultation to discuss the draft version of proposed revisions. This would be done at open houses in January and February.
The district said it will look at having balanced enrolment across schools and the capacity of family of schools, as students move from elementary to middle to high school in their “school family.”
Research also considers future housing starts, safe routes and transportation, enrolment projections, staffing and specialized programming.
“The district will be seeking input from the public to ensure that we can identify and understand the needs of our community,” Green said.
Ideally, the new maps of school catchments will be finalized in May of 2019.