NEWS RELEASE
LANGFORD – Changes are coming for some schools in the Sooke School District. The Board of Education voted to approve catchment changes during last night’s meeting.
With two new schools set to open in 2022, SD62 needed to create new catchment areas for them by shifting catchment boundaries for existing schools, all the while trying to optimize its resources throughout the district.
“The Board of Education would like to thank our stakeholders, students and families for participating in the extensive consultation that has led to the approval of the proposed recommendations,” says Ravi Parmar, SD62 Board Chair. “We are pleased that in September 2022 we will be able to open two new schools for our community. We recognize that through the engagement process and by reviewing enrolment projections that our District will still struggle to deal with the exponential growth in the West Shore and Sooke regions. Our Board will continue to work with the provincial government to advocate for capital investments to build more new schools for our students and staff so they can continue to learn, engage and grow in beautiful state of the art, inclusive learning hubs.”
Both Pexisen Elementary and Centre Mountain Lellum Middle schools are slated to open in the West Langford area in September 2022. SD62’s Catchment committee went through countless options to create two new catchment areas and redraw existing school boundary lines.
“The committee set out to see how the district could maximize space in our growing district so that we wouldn’t have overcrowding in one school and underutilization in another,” says Scott Stinson, Superintendent of Schools. “The proposals put forward and accepted by the Board truly puts our families and programs first.”
Notable changes include:
- Adjusting school boundaries in Langford and Colwood to create new catchment areas for Pexisen Elementary and Centre Mountain Lellum Middle schools.
- Gradual transition of the French Immersion program from École John Stubbs Middle School to Royal Bay Secondary. Currently, the secondary level French Immersion program is at Belmont Secondary.
- Shifting English program families living in the Belmont Park area from Crystal View Elementary to Colwood Elementary.
- Providing the option for students to grandparent into their current schools.
While most of the boundary shifts will take place in 2022, SD62 will look at different options that would minimize disruption for families.
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