About 20 Charlottetown-area parents and teachers gathered at Colonel Gray High School on Monday night to brainstorm about how to address overcrowding at downtown schools.
The evening, held by the Public Schools Branch, focused on Spring Park and West Kent elementary schools. West Kent is currently under capacity, while Spring Park is over capacity.
According to data prepared by data research firm Baragar Systems, Spring Park’s enrolment is projected to shrink from 550 students to 514 between now and 2022. And, while West Kent elementary is currently under capacity with 300 students, the firm projects it will be over capacity by 2022, with 420 students.
According to Parker Grimmer, director of the Public Schools Branch, the jump in student population is a reflection of Charlottetown’s projected growth.
"We have a real population surge in the Charlottetown area. We have people that are buying houses that aren't even for sale. Who would have expected that?” Grimmer said.
The schools branch contracted local marketing firm Volume 18 to oversee Monday night’s event. The consultation involved an exercise encouraging parents to jot down possible solutions to overcrowding issues on a colour-coded placemat.
Parents and staff attending Monday’s meeting were calm and consultative.
This was a far cry from a little over a year ago, after the Public Schools Branch recommended the closure of St. Jean School and Georgetown Elementary, when more than 500 people attended a raucous meeting in April 2017. Angry parents staged a protest during that meeting, waving placards, chanting and heckling speakers.
St. Jean and Georgetown were subsequently kept open after Premier Wade MacLauchlan and the Education department overruled the recommendation of the Public Schools Branch.
This time, Grimmer says the Public Schools Branch is taking a more collaborative approach.
"You always get the chance to reflect on the last effort. The last effort, as rich and as good as the consultation and discussions were, there was a feeling that came back, from some of participants, that they weren't as active as they would have liked," Grimmer said.
Christina MacLeod of Volume 18 said the hope is that parents will come forward with “out of the box” ideas.
“It's something (the Public Schools Branch) identified after the last consultation, that they wanted to go out to the community with their current situation to look for solutions," MacLeod said.
Danny Jenkins is the father of a Grade 1 student attending West Kent. He said he was thankful for the consultation, but felt that parents needed more information.
"The feeling that a couple of the groups had was perhaps the scope of the information that we saw tonight wasn't broad enough to really consider what viable options might be there," Jenkins said.
"We looked only at West Kent and Spring Park. There are a lot of questions about West Royalty. They're under capacity."
Jenkins said he was also concerned about the prospect of French immersion and English split grade classes of students at West Kent.
The Public Schools Branch will continue the discussions with one on Charlottetown high school capacity on Wednesday night and another about downtown intermediate schools on Thursday night. Both consultations will be held at 7 p.m. at Charlottetown Rural High School.
