‘This plan will be moving forward now’: Boldt on Harbour Landing School boundary change

The wheels on the bus will still go round and round, but many students are expected to be going to a different school.

Although no final decision has yet been made, it appears 200 students will be moved from Harbour Landing School to Ethel Milliken School in the fall after a temporary boundary change and will stay there until a new Harbour Landing West School is built.

Darren Boldt, the director of education and CEO of Regina Public Schools, said after a public school board meeting Tuesday evening the board will move forward with the boundary change after working out daycare and transportation.

“We considered each piece of feedback. We provided and worked through each individual suggestion, looked at the pros (and) looked at the cons,” he said. “Some of the suggestions are just not doable. With all due respect to the community that provided that feedback, it just wasn’t doable.”

Harbour Landing School has been dealing with overcrowding since it opened as a dual track English and French Immersion school. The French Immersion program had to be moved to Dr. A.E. Perry School in September 2020 because enrolments increased too quickly.

Boldt said it would be a temporary change and sending students to Ethel Milliken would cause the least amount of disruption for those in the area affected by the it.

Since there isn’t a great deal of new development in Harbour Landing, the director said he’s confident a new school will solve capacity issues.

“We’re confident that if we are correct on projections … we will be able to manage the population in Harbour Landing,” he said.

In addition, there is expected to be a permanent boundary change to Ethel Milliken School, which would send 100 students to the newly rebuilt Argyle School.

However, Regina Public Schools chairperson Tara Molson said when the new Harbour Landing West School opens in three years, it’s still going to be full.

“I think there’s a little more advocacy we can do there for the proper space we need for proper programming,” Molson added. “(The provincial government) planned for this in 2019-2020, so now (it’s) back to the drawing board and starting all over again.”