Avon Maitland District School Board Launches North Perth Boundary Review To Relieve Enrollment Pressures

by Bob Montgomery

Trustees with the Avon Maitland District School Board have approved the launch of a boundary review in the North Perth area.

The process involves examining the current school boundaries at the Board’s schools in Listowel and the surrounding area to determine how the boundaries might be adjusted to alleviate enrollment pressures. Board Superintendent of Corporate Services, Cheri Carter, says they actually did a review in the same area in 2021-22 and at that time the trustees approved a minor boundary adjustment that addressed a problem at the Listowel Eastdale Public School. But that decision was made with the understanding that they would have to make further adjustments in the near future to address the projected growth in the area over the next ten years, particularly at North Perth Westfield.

Carter says the next step is to go to the community with a number of potential options and see if they feel any of them might be viable. She says one of the options presented in 2021-2022 involved moving the grade seven and eight students into the high school but that was not supported by the community. They didn't feel it was appropriate at that time. Carter says she expects that option will be discussed again this time around because the high school is the only school that has excess space at this time.

Carter says at this point they're recruiting volunteers to sit on a committee that will discuss options. They're looking for three volunteers from each school community. They hope to have the committee selected by the end of December and then they can start holding committee meetings in January. There's a survey on the Board's website for anyone who would be interested in sitting on the committee. At one point they'll have an open house for the entire community to present what the committee has come up with and get feedback from the whole community, and then they'll present their recommendation to the trustees at the Board meeting at the end of April. They're hoping to have a decision from the Board by the end of the school year. But, she says there won't be any changes in the current school year. The changes would be made in the following school year.

More information about this project can be found at this page on the Avon Maitland District School Board website.