At last week's Rocky View School Board meeting, trustees voted to change the high school boundary for George McDougall.

"Ultimately the board did approve to change the attendence area so that students that are living in the Herons Crossing area over the next number of years, when they get ready for high school in September 2021, they will attend George Mac as opposed to Bert Church," said Superintendent Greg Luterbach.

The change was made as a way to alleviate population concerns at Bert Church and keep the populations of all Airdrie high schools roughly balanced. Currently, Bert Church is growing at such a rate that it will reach its capacity in the next five years. Meanwhile, George McDougall has more room to grow its student population.

With the change, students at Herons Crossing will now fall under George McDougall's attendance area. Currently, Herons Crossing is a K-4 school, but with a large addition opening later this year, the school will add a grade every year until they are K-8. In September 2021, the first group of students from Herons Crossing will enter high school, at which point they will be sent to George McDougall.

During the meeting, concerns were raised that a similar course of action was taken in Cochrane, only to see the high schools all grow. Luterbach explained to Discover Airdrie that while they can't guarantee that won't happen in Airdrie, they are operating on the best information currently available. George McDougall's attendance area comprises a relatively small urban area as well as rural students and French Immersion students.

"When we look at all three areas that feed George Mac, we don't see any super high area of growth, therefore we're quite confident in recommending that this area could go over to George Mac and fit given the numbers that we project for George Mac."

Concerns that some families affected by the change could see their children sent to different high schools, with older children going to Bert Church and younger students headed to George McDougall, Luterbach recommended a solution.

"You might want to consider, when your older student is ready to leave potentially C.W. Perry, rather than your older student going off to Bert Church, you could apply for an out of area student application for your older student to go to George Mac."

Luterbach says the reverse, having younger students apply to go to Bert Church, would likely be harder as the change is meant to reduce the number of students at that high school.

 

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