Parents, teachers union concerned new Bedford high school at under capacity

They’re not very far apart in distance, but when it comes to enrollment numbers, Charles P. Allen and the new West Bedford High School couldn’t be farther apart.

According to figures provided by the Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE), Charles P. Allen High School has a capacity of 1,638 students, but currently has 1,848 enrolled.

West Bedford High School, on the other hand, is part of the brand-new pre-primary to 12 facility that just opened this year. The total capacity of that institution is 2,000. Current enrollment in the elementary school side is 1,268, while the high school side is as 423.

Parents tell CTV News they understood the new school was supposed to alleviate the pressure being felt at CPA, but that hasn’t happened.

Lindsey Bunin, communications officer for the HRCE, says a lot has happened since the West Bedford complex was first announced.

“The school that we opened was announced in 2018, and so of course a lot has happened for us in that time,” she says.

That includes rapid population growth in the west Bedford area of the city.

Carla Munroe has a son in Grade 11 at CPA.

A photo of parent Carla Munro. (Heidi Petracek/CTV Atlantic)

“This current year my son tells me (the overcrowding) is worse this year than it was last year,” she says.

As a result, the HRCE decided some Grade 11 students would be taken by bus to the new high school for some of their classes.

“My child is not one that will be bussing this semester, but it doesn't mean that he won't be next semester, and I don't have the answer to that question,” says Munroe.

According to Bunin, West Bedford High School had six empty classrooms available to accommodate the students from CPA, calling it the “CPA Annex.”

“It allows them to use the state-of-the-art facility that West Bedford offers and helps to alleviate a bit of that congestion,” she adds.

She says the reason for the lower enrollment numbers at the new school are related to the new type of programming being offered at the school.

So why are there so many fewer students at the brand new school?

“(It’s) the self-directed learning model,” explains Bunin. “So we provided the choice, and we had several hundred students make the choice to move to west Bedford.”

Munroe says by the end of the previous school year, many parents still had questions about that new programming and says the HRCE didn’t provide enough communication on how the plan would roll out.

The head of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union agrees more consultation was needed with families and educators.

Ryan Lutes says he is concerned about the effects of overcrowding at CPA.

“When a school is over capacity it really creates pressures on all those physical infrastructures, plus all the people as well, you have now more students to manage, in a more confined area than there should be,” he explains.

Lutes says the situation is exacerbated by current full-time and substitute teacher shortages.

Munroe believes enrollment in the new school should have been determined by geography, as it is with other schools in the city.

“And then making a decision, drawing that line, creating the boundaries,” she says. "Nobody likes boundaries but everybody can understand them, but right now I don’t think anybody can understand this decision, and it has left people with more questions than answers.”

Bunin says HRCE wanted to offer families a choice because the program at West Bedford is new.

“And time goes on they will have the opportunity to choose,” she says.

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