Spring Park school overcrowding solutions reviewed at meeting

Spring Park Elementary parents heard proposals from the English Language School Board Tuesday night on potential solutions to overcrowding at the Charlottetown school.

The school board is considering moving some Spring Park French immersion students to West Kent Elementary School, which has plenty of space.

A report outlines possible scenarios, one of which is no change at all.

One option includes having all kindergarten students in both English and French immersion, who are zoned for both schools, attend West Kent.

Another would see half of the incoming kindergarten French Immersion students begin at West Kent in the fall. The zones would be determined by the board.

A third option would see half of the French immersion students in kindergarten to Grade 2 attend West Kent.

"The school is a feeder school for five other schools," said Fred Osborne, the board's chairman.

"So all of those French immersion students are coming in, so it was not just a population increase at the school ... the numbers have increased in five other schools. Therefore, those numbers were coming into and funneled into the school."

Parents have concerns about rushing changes through for the fall, says Laura Sinclair, spokeswoman for the Spring Park Home and School Association.

"You know, there are so many different ideas of how to solve this problem," she said.

"I guess it's just making sure there is enough time to weigh each one and decide which one is the best one for the students and the staff. The biggest concern I guess is fracturing the strong French immersion program at Spring Park."

A one-month consultation period with parents is now underway.

Another public meeting will be held May 19 for parents to provide input.