The replacement John Robson Elementary school being built on the former Saint Mary's Hospital site will mean minor changes for school catchments, according to the New Westminster school district.
Sandra Pace, the district's director of instruction/learning services, told The Record that students who live at Victoria Hill (on the former Woodlands site) will feed to the new Robson school. Currently, those students attend McBride Elementary school.
"Obviously the kids who go to McBride now and their siblings are grandfathered in," Pace said.
The Lord Kelvin Elementary catchment boundary will shift slightly from Fourth Avenue to Third Avenue.
"We pushed that a little further south because a) Kelvin is going to be relatively empty, and b) because that way the kids don't have to walk so far," Pace explained.
Kelvin's enrolment will go down once the new middle school is built on the current Robson site.
Herbert Spencer Elementary's catchment will be "unchanged," Pace said.
Enrolment at the soughtafter Queen's Park school will drop in the coming years and be in the 80 per cent capacity range, Pace noted. The new Robson school will be built to accommodate 550 students, a bump up from the original estimate of 350.
"So the immediate question becomes can it (Robson) keep its French immersion, and that's certainly an inter-est for Canadian Parents for French," Pace said. "Again there's a whole chunk of work to do around that. We have to be sure that the Victoria Hill can be accommodated and French immersion and the growth below Royal, which is not inconsiderable."
The Education Ministry increased the new Robson's capacity "because the ministry has decided that over time our district is continuing to grow," Pace said.
The ministry is showing foresight in recognizing New Westminster's land restraints, she said.
"It's not like in Surrey. We can't say well, wait five or 10 years and see if that develops and then you can go ahead and build there. In five or 10 years we might need that space, but there's not going to be another school site because we are bounded."
The ministry said construction on the replacement Robson should begin in the fall. The school is expected to open in early 2014.
