Powell River Board of Education delivered its decision on the future of the School District 47’s Eco-Immersion program.
The board has decided, after consultation with James Thomson Elementary School staff and parents that a cap of 22 students for new kindergarten registrations will be established for fall 2016 registrations.
Admission priority will be given to siblings of current students in the program and remaining seats will be awarded through a lottery system, one per family.
The program has grown in size over the past five years and now requires more space than initially anticipated.
A kindergarten enrolment of 22 students each year would require the school to provide eight classrooms, two more than are currently available at the school.
A portable classroom, provided by the ministry of education as part of the Henderson Elementary School seismic upgrades, will be moved to James Thomson for use in the fall and the board decided to consolidate the school’s music and first nations language room with the library to open up the last required space for September 2016.
In a report to the board, Jay Yule, district superintendent of schools, said the administration allowed higher than usual enrolment in the program during its initial years to ensure that it would have adequate students, but with the knowledge that at some point in the future they would need to revisit the issue because of space constraints.
Twenty-five students who were signed up for fall 2015 intake are being accepted. Yule said the school will work to fit those students in by creating a split kindergarten grade one class.
The board has also requested senior district administrators to begin exploring offering French Immersion at high school.
