Boundary review options for the new Centre Wellington elementary school have been released.
The school, yet to be named, is set to open for the 2025/2026 school year. The Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 school will be a 328 pupil place located at Kirvan Street and Elliot Avenue East within the Fergus Storybrook subdivision. Funding from the province’s Ministry of Education was received in 2021.
The point of a boundary review is to balance enrolment between a new school and existing schools in an area while also minimizing transportation needs and encouraging walking to school. For this boundary review the impacted schools are Elora Public School and Salem Public School.
Elora Public School’s on the ground capacity, meaning not including portables, is 464. In the 2023/2024 school year the enrolment was 501. Salem Public School has an on the ground capacity of 213 and its enrolment last school year was 287.
There are four boundary review options in a report set to go to the UGDSB finance and facilities committee meeting on Tuesday. Delegates can request to speak at this meeting. The final decision on the boundary review is set to be at a board meeting on Feb. 25.
A survey for feedback ahead of the boundary review options was posted June to October. Factors when thinking about a change in boundaries received responses like teachers and administrators, friendships, minimizing disruptions to students, programming and other elements.
For students currently enrolled at Elora and Salem public schools the staff of the boundary review committee will talk about the options for students to possibly stay at their current school as part of the final boundary review report.
The survey had 214 comments with other considerations for the boundary of the new school with common themes; transportation like bussing and walking, keeping students in the school they started in, and French immersion programming. Since UGDSB is reviewing a board-wide program review, recommendations for programs like French immersion will be implemented later on after the program review is complete.
There will be a public information meeting about the boundary options on Nov. 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Centre Wellington District High School. A new survey will be posted on the UGDSB website to get feedback on the options, following the meeting.
Delegations can request to speak at upcoming UGDSB meetings like the board meeting Jan. 14, finance and facilities committee meeting Jan. 21 and the board meeting with the decision on the boundary review on Feb. 25.
The board also received letters, part of the recent report, asking questions about the boundary review process. One of the emails from someone who lives in Elora (their name was redacted) said they have two children, one of which will start Junior Kindergarten in September. They expressed a desire to remain connected to their neighbourhood and wants to be within a boundary where their children can attend Elora Public School.
Here are the boundary review options from the report:
Option one
This is the north Fergus development area which includes the Storybrook subdivision and Beatty Hollow subdivision. Students in this development area are at Salem Public School, Kindergarten to Grade 3 and Elora Public School for Grade 4 to 8. As of September, enrolment information estimates there are 145 students held at these schools from the development area. Elora and Salem public schools are holding schools for students in the north Fergus development area. Out of the remaining options this one “provides the least amount of enrolment relief at” the existing schools noted above.
On the plus side the boundary option is within walking distance to the school and potential road upgrades to existing schools are planned for the future by the municipality.
Option two
This boundary includes the north Fergus development area, and the area eastward to St. David. Street North which includes both sides of Side Road 18 and both sides of Side Road 19 including Burnett Court and Victoria Crescent. As of September there are about 175 elementary school students in this boundary. This option could provide some enrolment relief to Salem and Elora public schools, more so than option one.
It’s mostly in walking distance for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 6 students and for Grade 7 to 8 the walking distance is 3.2 km.
Option three
This boundary includes the north Fergus development area, area east of Beatty Line North with homes along Side Road 19, area and subdivision north of Side Road 18, west of St. David St. N. As of September there are approximately 245 regular track students within the boundary.
This option looks to provide better enrolment balance between the schools on a longer term outlook. Most of the boundary area is within walking distance for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 6 and for Grade 7 to 8, the entire area is within 3.2 km.
Option four
This boundary includes the north Fergus development area, the area east of Beatty Line north, area south of Colborne Street, east of Gerrie Road and west of Beatty Line. As of September the boundary area has about 270 regular track students.
It provides the most enrolment pressure relief for Salem and Elora public schools. A large amount of the area is within walking distance for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 6 and the entire area is within 3.2 km for Grade 7 to 8.
