French immersion at Ecole Harbour Landing School to move to Perry School

French immersion students at Regina’s Ecole Harbour Landing School will be attending A.E. Perry School starting in the 2020-21 school year, after a Regina Board of Education trustees meeting approved the program move Tuesday night.

The five attending board trustees approved the move recommended by the school division in a unanimous 5-0 vote.

In its report filed with the trustees, the school division says Ecole Harbour Landing School is well over capacity with 927 students enrolled at the start of the current school year; it was originally designed for 650 students.

“With continued expansion of the French Immersion program (to K-8) and residential development continuing in the Harbour Landing subdivision, the projected enrolment for the school will continue to grow substantially beyond its capacity,” the report states.

The move to Perry is “an interim step toward reducing the overcapacity at Harbour Landing School. The relocation of the Harbour Landing French Immersion program to Dr. A. E. Perry School would also allow the continued expansion of French Immersion, as that facility has greater flexibility to accommodate existing and future enrolment.”

The school board believes the change will reduce Harbour Landing’s student population and help to alleviate “student intake growth.”

The French Immersion program at Perry School will be for kindergarten to Grade 5 students for the 2020-21 school year. Each subsequent year, an additional grade level will be added until a full K-8 French Immersion program begins in the 2023-24 school year.

It means that parents will have to register their kids in the new program on Feb. 1 this year; the school board also plans to host an orientation session this spring to explain the transition process to parents and students.

Along with moving the students to Perry, the building will get additional washrooms, “to create another Kindergarten room, and to expand occupancy capacity to 750,” according to the report.

The school division has also requested the Saskatchewan education ministry to add three more portable (also called relocatable) classrooms onto Perry “to accommodate future expansion of the program.”

It said that if possible, teachers and program resources from Ecole Harbour Landing School will move to Perry. “French Immersion resources will continue to be based on student numbers, and there is no expectation that this will change.”

Full details about the program move can be found here.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of the story, reflecting the correct years in which the program will be offered at A.E. Perry School.