The Boundary Review Parent Community Input Form for Orchard Park, Sherwood Forest, Clara Brenton and Eagle Heights is now available. The information is going home with students from Orchard Park and from Sherwood Forest today (Thursday, December 15). Responses are due back to the school on Monday, December 19th. However, the Board’s process is that only parents of students in the school are to submit forms. The rest of us are to have our say at the Board meeting the evening of January 10th at the Board offices, 1250 Dundas Street.
If you do plan to speak at the meeting, you must submit a request form by December 30th. You can find information on the time line and a link to the form under the December Update.
The attached options (which are advisory to the Senior Administration who will make a recommendation to the Board’s Trustees for its January 10th meeting), and their impact on Orchard Park P.S. can be summarized as:
– Options 1 and 3 project the school population to remain around 215-225 between 2013 and 2016. There will be some construction to add about 3,000 sq feet of space to include library renovations, general arts room, renovations for full day kindergarten, a Learning Support room and some office renovations. There will not be any portables.
– Option 2 would bring the school population to a projected 351-393 between 2013 and 2016. There will be construction to add about 6,000 sq feet of space to include a second floor, new gym and activity room, and new classrooms in addition to the construction that is part of Options 1 and 3. There will not be any portables.
– The cost of Options 1 and 3 is much less than Option 2. All capital proposals go the Ministry of Education for approval and the Board would like to be able to make a decision in time for a fall 2013 opening. No building designs have been prepared, although I was told by Board staff that a project similar to Option 2 was completed this year at June Rose Callwood School on Edward Street in St. Thomas (on a smaller lot than Orchard Park P.S.).
From a neighbourhood prospective, Option 2 would lower (but not eliminate) the risk that the Board would decide to begin another ARC in 5 years that would look at the future of Orchard Park P.S. The Board does not put schools through ARCs more than once every 5 years.
Orchard Park Sherwood Forest Ratepayers 