Waterford parents start petition about school boundary changes

Waterford parents upset about their children being moved to a different school following boundary changes are petitioning the Grand Erie District School Board.

The board recently approved boundary changes for the Waterford Area (Norfolk North West), along with those for Brantford East and the Paris area.

The boundary changes, made in attempt to more evenly spread enrollment among local schools, will impact about 185 students.

In a report to the school board at the start of the review process, Rafal Wyszynski, Grand Erie’s superintendent of business and treasurer, said residential growth has exceed the projected rate in Waterford where Waterford Public School is overcapacity and seven portables are on site. Continued growth will bring another 120 elementary students to the school in the next 10 years, said Wyszynski.

Boundary changes approved for the next school year in the Waterford area include:

Waterford Public, which has capacity for 285 students, had a 2022 enrollment of about 400 students. Bloomsberg’s 2022 enrollment was 190 students, about 71 per cent of the school’s capacity.

After the boundary changes, the school board estimates Bloomsberg’s enrollment will be at about 91 per cent capacity, and Waterford Public will be at about 76 per cent capacity. Enrollment at Boston Public would increase to 111 per cent capacity and require the use of two portables.

Matt Stonham, whose children are in Grades 3 and 1 at Waterford Public, is among the parents opposed to students moving to Boston Public, about four kilometers from his home.

Stonham has helped collect more than 500 signatures on a petition demanding the school board reverse its decision so that students who live south of Thompson Road in the “Yin subdivision” remain at Waterford Public.

Stonham said students in the area, now within walking distance of Waterford Public, would have to be bused in Bloomsburg.

“This decision has a negative impact on Boston Public School by immediately increasing their enrollment well over capacity and excludes students who reside in the Yin subdivision, south of Thompson Road, from attending Waterford Public School,” says and appendix to the petition.

Stonham said he wants his children to remain in a school that’s part of the community where they live.

“My son is in his fifth year at Waterford Public and has made friends there. This will rip people who have been part of the community away from that.”

Stonham said Waterford Public students forced to move will lose the free ice time they now receive at Waterford Tricenturena and easy access to Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Waterford cenotaph.

Stonham said he and his wife both work in Brantford and rely on the before- and after-school childcare provided at Waterford Public. He said Bloomsburg Public doesn’t currently offer a childcare program.

Stoham said uprooting children will cause additional stress when they “finally get back into the classroom” after two years of disruption due to the pandemic.

In a letter to Wayne Baker, superintendent of education at Grand Erie, Brandon Wagenaar, another concerned parent, said the plan will take current students from Waterford Public, “who live 837 meters from the school, to make room for hypothetical, future families, who does not yet exist.”

Wagenaar said a solution would be to keep the Yin subdivision students at Waterford Public, “legacy in existing students at the north end of town who are already brought to school on a bus, and redirect those new students, who have not yet moved in the county, to Boston Public School.

“This, in combination with moving Grade 7 and 8 students to Waterford District High School, will help maintain a healthy enrollment at all schools, preventing any portables in the immediate future.”