Board Approves Revised Boundaries for Rural Stathcona County

Following a healthy discussion at the December 19 Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) Board Meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a motion to maintain the current rural Strathcona County school boundaries with small revisions at the elementary and senior high levels.

The revisions designate the area west of Range Road 232 between the Whitemud Freeway extension and Wye Road to Pine Street Elementary and Salisbury Composite High. These changes will make the elementary (Pine Street Elementary), junior high (Sherwood Heights Junior High), and senior high (Salisbury Composite High) boundaries all coterminous in this area, so all students are designated together to the same series of schools for Kindergarten to Grade 12 in line with the existing feeder school framework.

Thank you to all the parents, students, staff, and community members who participated in the boundary review process.

Approved Boundary Map

The new boundaries balance our feeder school framework with the importance of proximity to schools, a priority identified by parents throughout the consultation process. The maps reflect the most educationally sound, economically viable, environmentally compatible, and publicly acceptable outcome following the Sustainable Decision-Making Model used by the Board.

None of the boundary options considered improved the utilization of the French Immersion schools in rural Strathcona County. Therefore, the Board approved a recommendation to maintain the current EIPS French Immersion boundaries.

The following maps give a detailed view of the revised boundaries in rural Strathcona County.

(Boundaries in effect for September 2014).

Approved elementary map

Approved Jr map

Approved Senior map

Grandfathering

The Board also approved grandfathering, enabling all affected students to finish the grades at the school they are currently attending. As with previous Board decisions on boundary changes, busing to non-designated schools is not guaranteed, and families are responsible for the associated transportation fees.

All students attending non-designated schools and accessing busing are charged a non-designated school transportation fee. An additional Payride fee will apply for students who reside less than 2.4 km from their designated school.

Special Exceptions for Former Colchester Students

A small sub-group of affected elementary students previously attended Colchester Elementary. When the school closed at the end of the 2012-2013 school year, students were designated to Fultonvale Elementary Junior High. With the newly revised boundaries, some of these students are now re-designated once again to a new school, Pine Street Elementary. Rather than designating these students to three different schools in the span of three years, the Board approved special exceptions for this sub-group.

For the former Colchester students who choose to be grandfathered and remain at Fultonvale Junior High, bus service will be provided until the youngest student completes his/her last grade at the school and this specific group of students will not be assessed a non-designated school transportation fee for busing to Fultonvale Junior High.