A committee has recommended consolidating Davis Bay Elementary, Sechelt Elementary and Kinnikinnick Elementary schools into one facility.
The committee of school representatives, students, parents and community members has met four times since September to look at the problem of declining enrolment and possible elementary school consolidation in the Sechelt area. This committee released its findings at the Tuesday, Nov. 10, School District No. 46 board meeting.
The committee considered the large gap between school capacities and enrolment, noting, for example, that Sechelt Elementary had 70 students enrolled this September relative to a capacity of 340. The school population has declined by more than half since 2002, when there were 149 students.
The committee has recommended that West Sechelt Elementary remain as is, with an enrolment of 199 relative to a capacity of 215, but that enrolment be capped or the boundary be adjusted so as to avoid a situation of overcrowding. They also recommended that the populations of the remaining three Sechelt schools, which totals 284 students, be amalgamated.
Either Sechelt or Kin-nikinnick, with capacities of 340 and 390 respectively, could accommodate that total population of students.
The committee looked at how the schools were faring relative to 25 desirable attributes, including: a library accessible at all times; peer group choices; a variety of extra curricular options specialists in music, drama, PE and French as a second language (FSL); and gifted programs.
They noted how limited resources in the various schools mean, for example, that peer choices are limited at both Davis Bay and Kinnikinnick, that there's no librarian at Kinnikinnick and that neither Davis Bay nor Kinnikinnick has a trained PE or FSL specialist.
School board chair Silas White said that as the committee has presented only one course of action, the school board will now look at distilling a few different options that can be presented at public hearings Dec. 1 and Dec. 8. At that point, he said, the public will be encouraged to bring forward their ideas and reactions.
