Upper Grand District School Board trustees have approved changes in Centre Wellington to move the French immersion program into two schools from the current three, create a new grade 7 and 8 program and adjust various school boundaries.
Those adjustments will have children living in Fergus attending Fergus schools, beginning in September. The decision came last month after a deferral of possible changes for seven schools.
At a December meeting, a number of additional grandfathering amendments were placed by trustee David Gohn. The board asked for a report responding to the community’s requests and delegations, and to consider the cost and implications on transportation and on future reviews, and consider the implications of retaining a status quo position for the foreseeable future.
After considering those, the original preferred scenario with the phasing in of the changes, and grandfathering of students (French immersion and regular track) in their last year of a program at any school, was approved by trustees. The grandfathering amendments from Gohn were rejected.
For French Immersion students, the decision means:
– grade 7 and 8 students move from Elora Public School to JD Hogarth Public School, with the current grade 7 students grandfathered for a year;
– grade 5 and 6 students at James McQueen also move to JD Hogarth; and
– junior kindergarten to grade 2 French immersion students at John Black Public School move to James McQueen.
That allows the board to have the French Immersion program housed in two schools.
For regular track students, the changes mean:
– students graduating from grade 6 at John Black and Victoria Terrace will no longer feed into JD Hogarth; and
– John Black grade 6 grads stay at John Black and are joined by the graduates from Victoria Terrace.
That decreases the ratio of grade 7 and 8 students at Elora and JD Hogarth, and creates the new junior kindergarten to grade 8 school at John Black. It will be a junior kindergarten to grade 7 school in 2009-10 and a full junior kindergarten to grade 8 school the next year.
Other boundary changes affect the following students:
– All junior kindergarten to grade 8 children from Black Street and Revell Drive (Fergus), currently bussed to Salem and Elora, will attend James McQueen (junior kindergarten to grade 6) and JD Hogarth (grades 7 to 8);
– All junior kindergarten to grade 6 students from Watt, Harvey, and Walkers Streets currently bussed to John Black will attend JD Hogarth with grade 7 and 8 students from those areas; and
All junior kindergarten to grade 6 students from Denny Gate, Darroch Way, and Scotland Street now bussed to John Black will attend JD Hogarth with grade 7 and 8 students.
In those changes, all existing regular track grade 5 students entering grade 6 at John Black and Salem schools will be grandfathered, and, where eligible, be offered transportation, as will all regular track grade 7 students entering grade 8 at Elora.
The amendments presented by Gohn sought to have the current students living in these areas staying in their existing schools (Salem and John Black) until they graduated, but those were rejected by the board. In the adopted plan, only the current grade 5 and 7 students will stay in their present schools.
