Parents voice concern over Harbour Landing School overcrowding

Within the next decade, a number of schools in Regina — including two that opened as recently as 2017 — are expected to be at capacity.

According to the Regina Public Schools’ Accommodation Review released in September, by 2021, two new schools in the suburbs — Harbour Landing School and Wascana Plains School — “will not be able to accommodate projected student numbers.”

The report also lists three other elementary schools (Judge Bryant School, Dr. L.M. Hanna School and McLurg School), along with the Connaught French Immersion Program, as “projected to exceed program delivery models” by 2027.

Regina Public Schools attributes the spike in enrolment numbers to an unexpected increase in birth rates and immigration.

On Monday night, the school board held a meeting at Harbour Landing School to share with parents how it plans to deal with the overcrowding there.

One of the more likely possibilities, as outlined in the report, is to move the roughly 180 French immersion students at Harbour Landing School to nearby Dr. A.E. Perry School next fall.

Having just moved his son to Harbour Landing School from Massey School when the boundaries changed two years ago, Tapas Das doesn’t like the idea of another move.

“This is a very nice community. We’ve built friendships and we like (Harbour Landing School) too much, so it will be frustrating,” Das said, adding he’s worried for his son’s mental health.

“We take our time to make friends, and it takes time to overcome these challenges.”

As for Marnie Regehr, who has four children at Dr. A.E. Perry School, she’s concerned an influx of new students will put their school back at capacity, which she said impacts the quality of her kids’ education.

“The core French teacher, the music teacher, they had to operate on carts to come into the classroom versus having their own personal space to work in,” Regehr explained, adding that after students moved to Harbour Landing School things improved.

“It just opened up a lot more space in the school and allowed for our kids to have physical education more regularly in the gym. Our playground wasn’t as crowded and we no longer have any kids bused to the school.”

Greg Enion, the director of education at Regina Public Schools, assured that the board and trustees will take parents’ concerns Monday night into consideration when it solidifies its interim solution in mid-January.

“We really valued them coming out and hearing their opinions, and we appreciated the questions they asked,” he said.

In the long term, Enion said the board would like to see a second school built in Harbour Landing.

“We need another school out here and if we had received an additional school already, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said, noting the board has been asking the province about it since Harbour Landing School opened two years ago.

Muhammad Fiaz, the MLA for Regina-Pasqua, was in attendance for Monday night’s meeting. He said he’ll take his constituents’ concerns back to his government colleagues in a meeting with school board trustees on Tuesday.

“What we are hearing is that we need a new school here in Harbour Landing,” he said. “There’s a lot of push and we’ll have to see what the government is going to decide.”

Fiaz noted that building a second school in Harbour Landing is prioritized within the top 10 of the provincial government’s major capital request list.

But even if the province approves erecting a second school in the southwest neighbourhood, Enion mentioned it would take about three years to build, so an interim solution needs to be decided sooner than later.

“We’ll do the best to make the best decision that we can and to have the smoothest transition process as possible, ” he assured.

The school board has until Jan. 15, 2020 to settle on a plan to deal with the overcrowding.