French school board to finalize rezoning by winter ahead of 2024/25 school year | CBC News

P.E.I.’s French Language School Board says it hopes to redraw the school boundaries — and finalize the system’s first rezoning in two decades — in time to for the new school year in September.

Public meetings on the draft rezoning plan wrapped up in Charlottetown Tuesday night. About a dozen parents and community members were in attendance as staff from the board explained the new boundaries between Charlottetown’s École François-Buote and Rustico’s École Saint-Augustin.

The new plan sees about eight families redirected away from François-Buote and toward the North Shore school for their elementary-aged children. The school then feeds back to François-Buote for Grades 7 to 12.

“We certainly want to be as reasonable as possible. We understand that we can’t please everybody and we want to make accommodations where it’s reasonably possible,” assistant superintendent Bruce Joshua told CBC News after the meeting.

Questions around exceptions to keep kids in their same school and grandfathering were raised by some parents during the discussion. Joshua said this will be part of his teams’ recommendations to the school board trustees.

After those recommendations are made and discussed with the trustees, the plans will be finalized in time to share them with families ahead of implementing the new boundaries in September 2024.

“The intent is that by mid-winter, February, that we’ll be able to communicate because we do understand that families are going to want to know as early as possible,” Joshua said.

The assistant superintendent said the new François-Buote boundaries are causing the most changes for families who now move away from the capital city school and toward smaller, rural schools like either École Saint-Augustin or École La-Belle-Cloche in Rollo Bay. 

Joshua said the redrawn boundaries around the Evangeline region, Summerside and Western P.E.I. impact one family or none at all in each case.

The board is still accepting feedback by email until Monday, Nov. 13.