The Hastings Prince Edward District School Board needs to make some changes when it comes to which students go to which schools and it’s asking for public feedback at public drop-ins Tuesday and Wednesday at the William R. Kirk building on Palmer Road in Belleville.
Enrolment at its schools has been increasing at over 1% a year recently and is expected to grow by 9% over the next eight years.
School Board Superintendent of Business Services Nick Pfeiffer says the enrolment challenges can be met by changing programs or grades or school boundaries.
“There’s often schools that are full but adjacent to them are schools that have space so we’ve worked with a consultant and have developed some
options that show some ways to do that, but we know that there’s many different ways and we’re really looking for community feedback on what they see.”
Some schools, such as Harmony Public and Bayside and Centennial Secondary schools and some in the east end of Belleville are at or over capacity while others are not.
The closure of schools is not an option.
The Community Drop-ins will run from 8 until 4 Tuesday with staff available to answer questions from 2 until 4. On Wednesday, public input will be welcomed from 8 until 4 and again from 5 until 7 when staff will be on hand.
Detailed information can be found here.
