Proposals to address overcrowding at Anglophone schools in Moncton upsets parents

With so many people packing their bags and moving to the Greater Moncton area, schools within the Anglophone East School District are bursting at the seams.

“We’ve seen an addition of over 1,500 new students in the last 18 months, we’re adding 60 students a month,” said superintendent Randolph MacLEAN.

“When we opened (on) September 30th, our enrollment was 18,007. Our enrollment now is 18,430, so we continue and continue to grow within the same infrastructure.”

Five schools are currently up for discussion as the district looks for ways to address overcrowding and enrolment growth.

The schools that have been highlighted as most pressing are Riverview East, Moncton High School, Shediac Cape, Lou MacNarin in Dieppe and Northrop Frye in the city’s north end.

There are a number of proposals on the table, including building new schools and repurposing others.

However, there are two proposals that have parents worked up the most.

The first is seeing changes to boundaries, meaning sending some students to nearby schools.

The second controversial proposal is reconfiguring schools to handle different grade levels, including seeing Riverview East become a kindergarten to Grade 5 school when it currently goes to Grade 8.

“For my youngest daughter, for sure, her whole middle school experience will be different,” said Caitlin Dawe, who has three daughters who attend Riverview East School.

“I also want to say, her two best friends live outside of the proposed new catchment so she would be transferred to a new school and then her best friends would now be going to a completely other school. That’s a lot for some little kids. They’re only in Grade 6.”

While Dawe recognizes the school is overcrowded, she doesn’t think the changes on the table are the right solution.

“We can’t be tearing apart a really, really tight knit community just for numbers and for convenience. The government needs to understand that we need funds to build more school facilities in the Greater Moncton Area.”

Dawe spoke out at one of the two public consultation meetings that were held for concerned parents. She says she left feeling like her voice was heard, but she is still worried about what changes will come next.

Parents who weren’t able to attend in person were encouraged to write letters voicing their comments and concerns.

Felicia Burton has a son in kindergarten at Riverview East and she’s not willing to send him to another school.

“I’ll be moving,” she said, if the changes do more forward.

“I want to keep them where they are. They’re established there. I have another son in daycare, which is across the street from the school.”

She also has concerns around travel, having to miss work due to a longer commute, increased gas prices and the amount of strain it will put on her as a parent if her son gets sent to Hillsborough.

“The biggest concern that jumped out at me is childcare. I’m not sure how they think childcare is going to appear in the small village of Hillsborough if they’re transferring 100 or 200 kids from the new proposed boundary out 25 minutes from town,” she said.

Burton, along with many other parents who have spoken to CTV News, say they bought their houses to be within a specific school boundary.

“I did my due diligence in researching before I bought my house and moved to Riverview, we both did that, so we knew what was available,” said Shiekera Smith alongside her husband, Glen Roy.

“[We checked] where the school was, how many minutes for the walk, if we were going to work how feasible would it be for her to be dropped off if the bus is late or not coming. We changed our jobs and we centred everything around this.”

Proposing her own solution, Smith launched a petition, which received nearly 200 signatures in less than 24 hours.

“My petition right now is that we keep [Riverview East] at K-8. Excess overflow… redirect to schools around. Cap it at the maximum capacity, do not accept kids beyond the capacity that you can maintain,” she explained.

“You’re going to disturb an entire community, for what? For figures, for statistics? Our kids are humans. They’re our future. What we put into them is what you’re going to get back.”

Officials say, in the last five years, the district saw more than 2,400 new students, including more than 1,500 from last year alone.

There is also already 65 portables in the system right now with requests for more.

“Portables are a short-term solution to a long-term issue because every time we add a portable we don’t add common space,” said MacLEAN.

“We add more students, but we don’t add common space, or libraries, or gymnasiums. We don’t add hallways, bathrooms and often times they sit on parking lots or playgrounds.”

Decisions are expected to be made on April 27 at a District Education Council meeting.

“We continue to get phone calls and emails and ideas and thoughts and we’re going to take all those in until the last moment before we walk into a meeting and make proposals or recommendations,” said MacLEAN.

He adds that implementation is expected for September or the following September.

“I think we can come to a common understanding,” he said.

“You’re right, no matter what decision we arrive at it may or may not be popular with some sections or our community, and that’s OK. These are really important and passionate conversations, but we’ll arrive at a decision with a common understanding to the why.”

The full presentation from the Anglophone East School District on its proposal to address the problem can be found online.