Overcrowded Moncton schools may get shake up in new report - Action News
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New Brunswick

Overcrowded Moncton schools may get shake up in new report

A report being released Wednesday night in Moncton could change the way nine schools deal with overcrowding.

9 Anglophone East schools were reviewed by Ernst & Young to address overcrowding and boundary issues

Northrop Frye School is one of nine Moncton schools that was studied by Ernst & Young. The report is attempting to deal with overcrowding issues. (Department of Education)

Students at nineMonctonschoolscould see a dramatic shake-up to where they go to class as the Anglophone East School District looks at ways to cope with overcrowding in the area.

A new report, which will be releasedbyErnst& Young at a meeting on Wednesday night, will suggest adjusting the boundaries for school catchment areasand changing the grades that are assigned to different schools. These moves are intended to betterdistribute students in the district.

TamaraNichol,thechair of the Anglophone East District Education Council,said the school review, which was issued in May 2015, said the report will address some of the major problems facing severalMonctonschools.

Tamara Nichol, the chair of the Anglophone East District Education Council, said she wants to shift public attention from school buildings to the students. (CBC)
"Overcrowding was the main driver of it [the study]," she said.

"It looks at what's happening at the other schools, are there space at other schools? Are we utilizing those spaces?"

The schools covered in the reportincludeNorthropFrye, Evergreen Park, Magnetic Hill,Birchmount,Beaverbrook, Queen Elizabeth, EdithCavell,HillcrestandBessborough.

Nicholsaid shehopes the report, which will be released atBerniceMacNaughtonHigh School on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.,will take the concern away fromschool buildings and focus on the needs of the students.

"Something that has become a distraction in education are the buildings. We need to do what is best for students," she said.

One of the schools reviewed in the report is NorthropFryewhere the AnglophoneEast School District hasbeen forced to hire extra staffto walk students from their portable classrooms.

Edith Cavell School, which had 266 students in 2014, is also being reviewed by Ernst & Young. (Department of Education)
NorthropFryehas 672 students in kindergarten to Grade 8 making it the secondlargestK-to-8schoolin the district.

The nine Moncton schools reviewed in the report are all located within a small radius.

Magnetic Hill School, which is outside of the city, is roughly 16 kilometres away fromBessboroughSchool, which is located off Main Street near Jones Lake.

Nicholsaid shewould like to see changes made tothe existingschools as a cheaper option to spending millions of dollars onbuilding a new school in one of Moncton'sgrowing neighbourhoods.

For example,coleLesclaireurs, a new school that opened in September in Fredericton,cost nearly $20 million to build.

"Nobody can deny the population in the north end has been growing in the last number of years,growing and will continue to, at the same time those buildings are definitely needed," she said.

"People are anxious about this," she said.

"We want to have a decision made as soon as possible."

Anglophone School District East has 37 schools with 15,496 students.