Spring Park Elementary overcrowding still an issue after school rezonings

At Spring Park Elementary School in Charlottetown, overcrowding is nothing new. But parents are frustrated that after last year's rezoning process, the situation hasn't improved.

On Monday night, the P.E.I. Public Schools Branch approved a study to look at how to deal with overcrowding at five Charlottetown area schools, including Spring Park.

• These Charlottetown schools will soon be over capacity

When therezoning process started in September 2016, families at Spring Park had hoped that it would mean a better distribution of elementary students at Charlottetown area schools.

The kindergarten to Grade 6 school has seen a dramatic increase in population numbers in recent years. In September 2011, enrolment was 376 students. That jumped to520 by2014 and enrolment sat at 541 in the 2016-17 school year.

The school now hasan enrolment of 542as of this week, despite the rezoning at the end of the last school year. The school has a "functional capacity" of 500 students. In five years, the school's projected enrolment drops down to 509 students, according to the PSB'sMonday report.

Growing community

The Public Schools Branch saidthere have been many successes at the elementary and intermediate level in the wake of rezoning. But branch director Parker Grimmer admits there's still work to be doneat Spring Parkin particular.

Grimmer saidmore families than expected moved to the area,and that kept enrolment numbers high.

"We do know that it is an area where it seems to be a growing community," Grimmer said.

"It seems to be a place where people want to be. So we have to continue to look at that. Because our job is to ensure that all of our buildings are great places to learn."

Grimmer said further study is needed to better understand what needs to be done to address capacity issues.

'It's frustrating'

The continued capacity issues have left some parents frustrated. Leslie Cudmore has two children at Spring Park, and is co-chair of theSpring Park Home and School Association.

Cudmore said concerns about class sizes come up regularly at meetings.

• Spring Park's Home and School concerned over student population

"We went through this whole process of rezoning and ended up as the same numbers as last year in terms of enrolment, it's frustrating in that regard,"Cudmoresaid. "We thought this was an opportunity, a chance to see some decrease in enrolment, and some positive change, but unfortunately that wasn't the case."

Cudmore saidafter all the stress and uncertainty that came with the rezoning process, it doesn't make sense thatstudents and teachers are still dealing with not enough classroom space. She said one thing the home and school association would like to see is a population cap set on student enrolment at Island schools.

Next steps

Grimmer said the schools branch is working on addressing families' concerns. He said the idea of a population cap at each school is something that might be looked into.

And Grimmer said anyone with ideas is welcome to get in touch with the schools branch.

The PSBsaid there will be no changes at Spring Park, or the other four Charlottetown schools being studied, until at least the 2020-21 school year.

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