‘It was avoidable,’ trustee says of Harbour Landing School situation

The severe overcrowding of Harbour Landing School has resulted in Regina Public Schools taking action.

That will include temporary and permanent boundary changes as well as changes to the high school feeder system.

Adam Hicks, the school board’s trustee for Subdivision 3, said the issue has been brewing for a long time.

“We have known since almost this school opened in Harbour Landing that we needed a second building and something had to be done,” Hicks said.

“Three years in a row, we asked for capital funding. We were very thankful it was approved in 2021. However, there’s a lot of land discrepancies and a little bit of back and forth between the province and the city about who (is going to) pay for it and what that looks like. And so really, the building has been delayed by two years.”

Hicks said that if not for the delays, the new school would have been built this year.

Harbour Landing School was built to support 650 students; right now, almost 1,100 students attend the school.

The board will be moving 200 students from Harbour Landing School to Ethel Milliken Elementary School for the 2023-24 school year in a temporary boundary change.

“We are at almost the legal limit where the fire marshals will be closing down the building because we can’t fit any more kids in,” Hicks said. “So we are doing this out of desperation.”

Hicks said this entire process has been incredibly frustrating. He also recognized it could prove to be really inconvenient for students and their families.

“Lots of these families have moved one or two times already based on on the changes in the boundaries (and things like that),” he said.

Hicks said that since the decision isn’t finalized, families have the opportunity to voice their concerns and give suggestions.

He said due to some of the feedback the board has received, it’s now considering exemptions for Grade 6 students affected by changes to the northeastern Milliken boundary when exemptions were only previously considered for Grade 7 students.

“Some children, if they graduate out of Harbour Landing, will go to Sheldon Williams. And the younger children, if they moved to Milliken, will actually go to (Campbell Collegiate) and so there’s a lot of messiness around this that we are trying to work through right now,” Hicks said. “There is no easy decision but we do know that our staff are going to really help the children through it.”

Parents will have opportunities to voice their concerns at open houses hosted by the school division on Thursday at Harbour Landing School and on Monday at Ethel Milliken.

Hicks fears that if a deal isn’t reached, the school will be stuck in the same tough spot years from now.

“Honestly, in my seven years as a school board trustee, it is one of the most frustrating processes and things I’ve ever seen,” he said.

”It was avoidable. Honestly. We are hoping that we can work more collaboratively with the city and the province in the future because we have some similar problems that are looking like they might transpire in the east end of the city and we are hoping we do not have a Harbour Landing Part 2 in the east end.”

A final decision is to be made March 21.