Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) is running out of space at their Cold Lake schools, and as a result, are collecting feedback on the best ways to address it.
The division created the Cold Lake Configuration Committee, which will collect data and offer suggestions on how they should correspond with stakeholders.
During the board of trustees meeting on Nov. 13, NLPS secretary-treasurer Paula Elock gave an update on the first meeting held by the committee.
“We went through a presentation I originally gave in June as a recap… then we went through the committee terms of reference to talk about the responsibilities and role of the committee in general so there wasn’t any misconceptions about what the committee is there to do,” Elock explained.
Due to the increase in enrolment in NLPS’ Cold Lake schools, the division felt the best way to determine their next steps in addressing overcrowding was to reach out to those who would be impacted by the decisions: parents and principals.
“The superintendent and I sat down and said, ‘we can see a number of options that work, but we don’t know if they’re the right options or which one is the right one for the community.’ That’s why we need parent involvement,” Elock detailed.
The main objective of the committe is to help NLPS determine what information should be shared with stakeholders and the best way to collect feedback from them.
“In order for parents to make informed decisions about what they want to tell us, we have to give them the information. So what information do they need to make a very informed decision to help guide us as a school division to what’s the best thing to do for their children and for the community? The role of the committee isn’t necessarily to make those decisions, it’s to help determine what information we give to the parents, and how best to collect the information that we need back to take to the board to make a decision,” Elock said.
She added, “The goal of the committee is to address enrolment pressures in our school in a way… that we have the most satisfaction from the community perspective, not just what works for us.”
Although NLPS has known they could be facing a lack of space for quite some time, they didn’t anticipate the significant changes they experienced at one of their schools this year.
“We did add extra capacity to Cold Lake Elementary when we built that school, but now we’re looking at it and going, ‘okay, we’re going to need to do something on the horizon,’” Elock explained. “With respect to Cold Lake High School, our enrolment’s higher than we had anticipated for this year, so that’s maybe accelerating some of the pressure on doing this.”
In 2006/07, the total number of students enrolled in Cold Lake was 1,966. After NLPS’ official count in the fall, there were 2,434 students attending their schools in the city. That number is expected to jump to 2,638 by 2022/23.
Trustee Karen Packard attended the committee meeting, and was impressed with what members brought to the table.
“There were some great questions, and some great insight provided from some of the parents,” she expressed. “It was just the first meeting, but I’m hopeful we’ll get some good suggestions.”
A minor issue faced was over representation on the committee from one school over the other.
“We’re working on that piece to make sure there isn’t an imbalance in the committee representing one school more than another school,” Elock noted. “That’s one issue that we’re addressing currently.”
Elock said members were tasked with brainstorming possible suggestions on configuration for Cold Lake before their next get together, which is tentatively booked for early February 2020.
