Trustees with the Greater Essex County District School Board have decided to change the boundary lines of three elementary schools in the Riverside area to address enrollment concerns.
The boundaries for David Suzuki, Hetherington and Princess Elizabeth public schools will all be adjusted starting in September.
Superintendent of Education and Accommodations Todd Awender says current students affected by these changes won't be forced to move schools. "Every time we do this, we try to affect the least amount of families and students that we can," says Awender. "This was something that we thought was hopefully a win-win for all three schools and all of the families involved, and gives them some choice."
But Awender says new students need to follow boundary changes. "When we had kindergarten registration, our schools knew that we were in this process so they were mentioning that based on where you live, it could be a different school that you would be going to in September," he says.
Current utilization at David Suzuki is 104%, while Hetherington sits at 79% and Princess Elizabeth is 60%. The boundary changes will help evenly distribute students across all three schools and eliminate portables at David Suzuki over time.
