Registration is moving along smoothly for c’usqunela elementary.
After a week and a half, there were about 280 in-catchment registrations and another 80 out-of-catchment applications.
“It’s going to relieve a lot of the space pressures on the surrounding schools,” said c’usqunela’s principal Jonathan Wheatley.
That will come mostly in the area of 230th and 240th streets – including Albion, Alexander Robinson, Kanaka Creekand Blue Mountain elementary schools.
All are at or near capacity.
“They will be allowed to flex those classroom spaces a bit more because we’ll pull groups of kids out of those buildings and into c’usqunela,” said Wheatley, who expects the school, built for around 600 students, to open with somewhere between 400 and 450.
Applications are being accepted until the end of the month for students in Kindergarten to Grade 7.
“We really didn’t have a good sense of how many children would necessarily be coming to the new school because they are coming from existing school communities,” Wheatley added.
“So depending on the age of the kids, their daycare arrangements, their peers, other connections, that was a way where we could manage the process to make sure we filled the school up in a thoughtful manner.”
The catchment areas of surrounding schools were redrawn last year to take into account the new the one serving the new school.
The c’usqunela elementary catchment area goes from about Tamarack Lane, just east of the Lougheed Highway to 252nd Street just north of Godwin Drive, down to 100 Avenue and Jackson Road, west along 103 Avenue back to Tamarack Lane.
The school is located at the south end of the catchment area along 104 Avenue. Wheatley said many students, particularly in that Albion area, will fall outside the catchment zone, but live close to the school.
“So it would just make sense that this would be their neighbourhood school if there is space available.”
Other families, he added, have to bus to Webster’s Corners elementary and being accepted into the new school would mean they wouldn’t have to do so anymore.
“Every family has their own reasons,” Wheatley said about out-of-catchment applications for the new school.
All homes along 104 Avenue are included within the catchment area, even though it is not clear on the map.
“When creating the new catchment area, the district tried, whenever possible, to consider the area’s geography, existing roads and subdivisions and how enrollment pressure on neighbouring schools could be best reduced,” said Wheatley.
He anticipates that the school will be able to accommodate all in-catchment students before looking at the out-of-catchment registrations to determine if they can accommodate them.
Out-of-catchment applications will be reviewed that at the end of the month and Wheatley expects that they will inform families where the process is at by the middle of February.
The school is still on schedule to open its doors on Sept. 3.
“But we do have a contingency plan if, for some reason, something around the project doesn’t cooperate,” said Wheatley.
That plan may include supervised busing from the c’usqunela school site to a temporary one.
“It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity for anybody who comes there. There’s a lot of excitement and energy around opening a new school and creating a new community,” said Wheatley.
“I think it will be a great place for kids to learn and play.”
Registration is being done online through the school district parent portal and will close at midnight on Jan. 31.
• Contact Jonathan_Wheatley@sd42.ca or go to elementary.sd42.ca/cusqunela/.
