Parents in the Eastern School District will hear recommendations tonight on what schools will be rezoned for the coming school year, and while public input will be limited, there will be a six-week public consultation period before the rezoning plan is finalized.
In a news release, district education superintendent Sandy MacDonald said it is important that school communities are properly informed regarding the district rezoning process.
The meeting will be held at Colonel Gray High School at 7 p.m.
MacDonald said requests for school boundary changes were required for submission to the chair of the board of trustees by an Oct. 15 deadline. Six requests were received and a rezoning committee was established in late October.
The committee was asked to study the requests and recommend to the full board which should be implemented.
MacDonald said the rezoning committee prepared recommendations for the Dec. 17 board meeting but the recommendations were removed from the agenda.
Last Wednesday, a second attempt was made to present the committee's recommendations but the meeting was rescheduled due to space limitations.
At tonight's meeting, the rezoning committee will recommend to the board the schools that are to be rezoned for the coming year. MacDonald said no options or details will be provided as to how these schools might be rezoned.
As per board regulation JCAA-R, there will be no public input. The board will simply decide which schools will be rezoned.
"The board will direct the rezoning committee to complete and present a report to the board outlining details and/or options as to how these schools might be rezoned," MacDonald said.
"This report must be presented before January 31, 2010. At this time, a six-week public consultation process, as per board regulation JCAA-R, will begin. Public meetings will be advertised in the newspaper, on our website and through our schools."
He said the board hopes to hear from as many affected parents and community members as possible before a final decision is made.
Parents to hear school rezoning recommendations tonight
- Published on January 13th, 2010
- Published on June 15th, 2010
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Staff ~ Farm Focus
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- Jack
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:18:02
I will be going to this meeting and encourage others to attend as well. We need to let the ESD know that we are involved in our children's schooling and have opinions with regard to how it is undertaken.
I lost the school in my community last year and at that time wished that there was more support from the general population of the island to keep our community schools.
The arguments are not much different in this debate than they were last year. No one wants their kids to drive past a perfectly good school which they love in their neighbourhood and continue on to another school. Whether the school is not available to them because it has been closed by ESD or rezoning has made it unavailable, the feeling is the same.
Let's face it - we all come from close knit communities in PEI. We should have stood together last year against the proposed changes. All we can do now is stand together to ensure the best possible plan is determined. -
- Anita
- - June 21st, 2010 at 20:14:17
That's funny... the board hopes to hear from as many affected parents and community members as possible before a final decision is made ...why didn't you do this before you got everyone's feathers in a ruffle? There are many intelligent people out there with effective ideas...if you'd actively listen!
