I am writing today as a parent of 2, soon to be 3 children at École LaVérendrye and your neighbour and friend. Our children play together and attend the programs of the community centre together. I have of course been following the story of overcrowding at LaV with great interest and concern. I am glad that WSD has finally brought you into the conversation and the process.
When the WSD and LaV parents were brainstorming options to deal with the overcrowding last year, many LaV parents expressed concerns about the idea of a swap. We love our school and community and the staff have put in a lot of effort to make it a great place to learn. We especially love the beautiful heritage building and lovely grounds. We loved that "small school" vibe we used to have. We were looking forward to the opening of the new gymnasium and extra space that we had worked to fundraise for. We did not particularly want to leave all this. At that time, many parents felt a new milieu at another location would be the answer. We also didn't want to disturb Earl Grey School unnecessarily. Both schools have been operating successfully for a century in their current locations.
As you know, new information came to light earlier this year. One turning point was learning that we would not have enough homerooms for the children in September 2015. Another turning point was the realization that due to space issues, grade one students struggling to read could not access the acclaimed Reading Recovery program that is available in every other WSD school. A third turning point was more information coming to light about LaV's enrollment numbers and demographics. Although the catchment is large, only 30% of the students live outside of walking distance to the school (say 10 blocks or so). So the other 252 or so live right around here. A new or revamped school would be nice for those in South River Heights, but it wouldn't have a significant or timely impact on our numbers. Although many of us wanted to be convinced, there is still no convincing scenario that's been put forward when it comes to opening a new milieu. By some calculations, LaV wouldn't get down to less than 300 students until 2019. In other scenarios, we drop temporarily to less than 300, then climb quickly back up to more than 300 within 3-4 years. So although it was not our first choice originally, the swap idea needed to be looked at further.
As we are midway into the ensuing consultation process and still have a couple tough months ahead of us before a decision is made, I wanted to write to you to try to find some common ground in this whole experience.
Here are a few things I think we can agree on:
- This proposed change has come out of nowhere for you as EG parents. You wouldn't have known much about our overcrowding problem. You like what you have and naturally were not considering or expecting big changes. The WSD said a school swap was not an option as recently as December 2014. WSD has not handled this process well at all. Now they are finally doing the proper consultation that they should have done years ago. Of course at this point we are all feeling frustrated, upset and somewhat mistrustful. It’s made worse by the fact that LaV needs some sort of resolution in September 2015. EG parents are feeling that you were only brought in at the last minute.
- The way WSD calculates capacity is flawed. They don't consider a school "full" until all instructional spaces are used as homerooms. Music, art, libraries etc are not deemed to be necessary, although the parents of course want these spaces for the school and consider them "need to haves". This policy is frustrating and upsetting to both EG and LaV parents. We should work together to influence this calculation to help other schools in the future.
- We want all the students to have homerooms to hold their classes in as well as things like daily gym time for N-6, art room, music room, resource/Reading Recovery space, library, computer room and appropriate daycare space. Regardless of the WSD's policy on capacity, there is not much point to a solution that doesn't provide accommodations for these basics in some form once all renovations are complete. Daycare in particular is vital and no interruption in service should take place.
- We hope that some space can also be found for some of the ancillary programs that are most valued by each school and make our schools unique. For example, we used to offer a Spanish class, and EG has its own valuable extra programs which I can't speak to specifically (although the Aboriginal Parents program for example sounds very interesting to me). We should each have some say in determining which of these are the most important.
- The best solution is the one that keeps as many kids as possible going to a school in their same neighbourhood and involves the least splitting of kids from their friends and siblings.
- We are keen to have this issue resolved one way or another in a reasonable amount of time so we can become one community again and repair any damage that this process has done to our neighbourhood.
- We are role models for our children. Whatever changes may come, we need to provide positive support so the kids have the best school experience possible.
- The decision makers in this situation are the Board of Trustees and WSD, so it is important for them to have as much accurate information as possible.
From, the Concerned LaVérendrye Parent
