The Enterprise Bulletin ran some comments I made around the AAR recommendations for Collingwood. It’s a fairly long article and covers most of the points tied to how the recommendations were developed.
Attendance Numbers A Balancing Act : trustee Enterprise Bulletin: March 10, 2010
( Smith said …) “The recommended solution had to solve the problem of balancing student numbers at the four Collingwood elementary schools, plan for future growth and development and be the least disruptive to the students and families.
“At the same time it also had to take into account busing, safety and keeping together town housing divisions.”
Smith said the matter was also complicated by figuring out whether certain special education programs, such as the Extended French and county special education class programs, needed to be moved as well. That would have meant moving 375 students.
In the end, staff recommendations left both the Extended French and Gifted programs in their original location at Admiral Collingwood and Mountain View respectively, Smith said.
“In the end the staff recommendation moves 95 students. The number of bused students remains the same as current levels, and the recommendation importantly does not increase these numbers, and has the potential long term to decrease them.
“Initial scenarios that were reviewed included breaking up the downtown ‘tree area’ of Collingwood and having students split with some attending Mountain View and others to Connaught. This would not only have broken a clear community division, but there were also safety issues, and this would have resulted in an increase in bused students,” added Smith.
