A restructuring of school grades is being proposed in Enderby to shift some students from the over-capacity M.V. Beattie Elementary to the under-capacity A.L. Fortune Secondary school.
The North Okanagan-Shuswap School District is recommending a public consultation process be initiated on converting M.V. Beattie to either a K-5 or K-6 configuration and moving the middle school grades into A.L. Fortune Secondary.
Something needs to be done with Enderby schools because M.V. Beattie is facing an excess number of students now that a new deal has been worked out with the provincial government and the BC Teachers’ Federation to scale back class sizes. To accommodate all the students under this new arrangement, M.V. Beattie needs 15 classrooms, but only has 13 available.
A number of options was being considered by staff including: installing portables, not allowing any out-of-catchment students to attend, or re-drawing the catchment area maps and sending some students to Grindrod or Ranchero schools.
The recommended option from staff, however, is the restructuring of the grades.
“A.L. Fortune Secondary has the capacity to house additional students and, considering the other alternatives available, either of the options involving grade adjustments should receive primary consideration to resolve the capacity issue at M.V. Beattie,” states the report from staff to official trustee Mike McKay.
A decision will have to be made soon. M.V. Beattie will be beyond capacity in the 2017/2018 school year.
A school consultation process runs for 60 days. If approved by McKay, the process would begin and a public meeting would be scheduled for Tuesday, April 4 at A.L. Fortune Secondary, following the regular public school board meeting.
A final decision on the matter would be scheduled for May 15.