School board shuffles students to address overcrowding at Kaawaate East City Public School

Less than three years after it opened, Peterborough’s newest public school already faces overcrowding, and in response some French immersion students will be moved to another school starting next September, the school board has decided.

Kaawaate East City Public School opened in 2021 and already has four portables to accommodate extra students. By next fall, Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board staff expect the school to have 172 more students than it was designed to hold.

To reduce crowding, French immersion students at Kaawaate will be moved to Adam Scott Intermediate School to complete grades seven and eight starting next September, school board trustees decided in a vote on Tues. Jan. 23.

Trustee Diane Lloyd, from Peterborough County, said it was surprising the new school is already in this situation.

“It seems hard to believe, with that school being as new as it is, that we’re already worried about how to fit all of the… students into the building,” she said.

The school board asked parents and caregivers to weigh in on the proposal to move students to Adam Scott at an in-person meeting last fall and through an online survey, which received more than 200 responses, according to a report by board staff. Many respondents agreed the board was “short-sighted” in how it plans new schools and needs to “figure out how to plan properly for estimated [enrolment] numbers.”

Trustee Cyndi Dickson defended the school board, saying that when it plans a new school it has to “build to the numbers [of students] at the time.” She said the Ministry of Education doesn’t provide funding to make schools larger to accommodate anticipated enrolment growth.

“That is the process,” said Dickson, who represents the City of Quinte West and part of Northumberland County. “And there’s nothing that we can do unless the ministry allows it.”

Kaawaate opened in 2021 to replace two other East City schools, Armour Heights and King George. The school board decided to consolidate those schools into a new one in 2016, citing declining enrolment.

In a document on its website, the board states that Kaawaate was built with money from the Ministry of Education’s Capital Priorities fund, which determined the number of students the building would accommodate. “Based on the provincial funding model, the Ministry of Education approved a 674-pupil space school, with a three-room child-care facility,” the website states.

At the time, the board was projecting slower enrolment growth and expected that the school would be only slightly above capacity by 2026, according to a presentation the board made to parents and caregivers last fall.

Instead, enrolment growth has accelerated much faster than the board had projected.

A ministry official told Currents on background that the KPRDSB applied for funding for a new school with space for 674 students, along with a child-care centre, in 2016.

When considering the application, the ministry looked at enrolment forecasts, historical enrolment trends and other information submitted by the school board, the official stated.

The official added that it’s the responsibility of school boards to use their enrolment projections to plan for where they may need to add a new school or make other changes to accommodate fluctuating student numbers.

However, a 2023 memo to school boards across the province states that funding requests for capital projects, such as new schools, must focus on current accommodation pressures, not projected student enrolment. 

“As with previous years, project submissions must demonstrate a critical and urgent pupil accommodation need in order to be considered for funding approval,” states the memo, sent by the assistant deputy minister for the education ministry’s capital and business support division.

School boards must also submit a “business case” that shows new schools will be at or above capacity five years after their proposed opening date, according to the memo.

Parents say they may pull their son out of French immersion

Jenn and Chris Paulson have a son in French immersion at Kaawaate and were “very upset” to learn he will have to switch schools for grade seven.

He is now in grade five and has already experienced many disruptions to his education, including lengthy school closures during the pandemic, Jenn Paulson told Currents earlier this month. He and his classmates were also bussed to an elementary school in Lakefield for two years while Kaawaate was under construction. 

“A big concern for us is the mental health of the students,” she said. “They’ve had multiple things to deal with over their school tenure so far… it’s just a lot on them.”

The couple said they are “definitely” considering pulling their son out of French immersion so he can stay at Kaawaate.

They said they are worried about sending him to a “secondary school environment,” since Adam Scott Intermediate School is in the same building as Adam Scott Collegiate Vocational Institute.

“He’s going to be on a bus with high school kids,” Chris Paulson said. “That’s concerning for us.”

The overcrowding at Kaawaate did not come as a surprise to parents like Jenn and Chris Paulson: the school was already slightly over capacity the year it opened, the school board has acknowledged.

“It’s really frustrating,” Jenn said. “You see all these new schools being built and almost immediately there are portables or they’re at or over capacity.” 

A spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce told Currents in an email that the Ford government is “committed to building modern schools” and has pledged nearly $15 billion to “build, expand and renew schools across Ontario.”

“Since coming into government in 2018, we continue to support growing communities in Peterborough by investing approximately $47.4 million in the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Board for one new school and two additions, along with the creation of 1,031 student spaces,” Isha Chaudhuri said. 

Chaudhuri said the government’s newly introduced Bill 98, The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, will “reduce red tape for school boards and build schools faster across the province.”

School boards across Ontario face “tremendous financial constraints”: professor

Kaawaate isn’t alone in facing a space crunch so soon after opening, notes a recent article published in the Canadian Journal of Education that looked at portable use in Ontario’s largest school boards. 

The Ontario government will only provide funding for a new school or addition if a school is already over-crowded, according to report author Augusto Riveros. That has led to an over-reliance on portables, including at some new and recently opened schools, argues Riveros, a professor at the University of Western Ontario. This overreliance on portables is a symptom of under-investment in the education system and “highlights the tremendous financial constraints imposed on school boards,” he contends.

At the school board meeting, trustee Rose Kitney, who represents the City of Peterborough, said many parents have questioned why the board doesn’t reopen King George or Armour Heights to deal with overcrowding at Kaawaate.

James Brake, the board’s superintendent of education, said staff “did seriously consider” reopening Armour Heights, but determined it was not a “viable option.”

It would require “significant investment” to bring Armour Heights and King George “to necessary standards for students,” a document on the board’s website states. 

Brake also said the board has “exhausted” the option of adding portables to the Kaawaate property.

Through online feedback, some parents suggested building an addition on the Kaawaate school, or altering the topography of the school property, which is on a hill, to accommodate more portables. But the board said funding is not available for either of those options.

Recent student enrolment growth in the area is partly driven by a new subdivision, called Burnham Meadows, being built on the east side of Television Road (in Otonabee-Monaghan Township), states a document on the school board’s website. 

The document states that enrolment is expected to continue growing in coming years, with a number of housing developments planned for East City. The largest of those developments is a 700-unit subdivision, south of Old Norwood Rd. and west of Television Rd. Construction could begin as soon as this spring, according to the Peterborough Examiner.

Even with the removal of some French immersion students, Kaawaate is still expected to experience overcrowding in coming years, according to board projections.

The board says it is now working on a long-term strategy to manage enrolment growth at Kaawaate and other Peterborough schools.

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