Balancing Airdrie Student Spaces

Decision

The Board of Trustees (the Board) of Rocky View Schools (RVS) made an important decision at the April 25, 2024 public board meeting regarding Balancing Airdrie Student Spaces. To address increasing enrolment pressures and improve utilizations at Airdrie schools, many grade configuration changes and attendance boundary changes will be made across Airdrie starting the beginning of September 2025. There are no changes for the upcoming school year. See the letter sent to parents for more information.

After listening to community feedback through the Balancing Airdrie Student Spaces engagement and considering all available information, the Board believes a school-by-school approach to changing grade configurations and attendance areas where necessary and keeping neighbourhoods together, honours what we heard and best balances Airdrie student spaces with the greatest improvement to utilizations overall. A summary of various outcomes of this decision is provided below. A list of all specific changes for families to view the 2025/26 adjustments within their school and/or community is available here. A table listing changes by community is also available and an interactive map will be provided by the end of the school year.

Summary (see below for detailed changes)

• No changes until the fall of 2025.
• All high schools in Airdrie become Grade 10 – 12.
• Multiple Airdrie communities are redesignated to other schools to address the pressure in various schools and maximize every possible space. Details of the communities redesignated are attached.
• All schools except for Cooper’s Crossing School adjust by one grade level.
• No attendance boundary changes for French Immersion or Christian programs. Christian program extends to Grade 9 (currently ends at Grade 8).
• A small area in central Airdrie is now designated to specific high schools discontinuing a historical choice area.

What We Heard

The Board of Trustees appreciates the feedback gathered from the Airdrie community both online and in person. This feedback, consisting of more than 600 pages of responses, 11,600 visits to RVSEngage and 450 people attending the open houses, provides the Board with important information to consider while working towards a decision on April 25. Read a summary of What We Heard as a result of this engagement with our community.

Rocky View Schools welcomes your input as we consider possible solutions to address ongoing rapid enrolment growth in Airdrie. Please take time to review this information and provide your initial thoughts.

Your RVS Journey: See how the potential solutions could impact students in each neighbourhood using this interactive tool (external link)

Balancing Airdrie Student Spaces engagement provides Airdrie families, staff and community members information and an opportunity to share feedback for addressing increasing school space pressures.

RVS staff have worked hard to intensify existing space and the Board has advocated strongly for full construction funding and modular classrooms from the government to keep pace with our growth. Unfortunately, the earliest a new elementary school in Airdrie could open is 2026 or 2027 and a new high school, optimistically, in 2028. While the potential new schools will help, they do not fully solve RVS' ongoing space challenges given the city grows by 300 – 500 new RVS students each year.

The Balancing Airdrie Student Spaces engagement is open until March 2024. The Board aims to reach a decision at the April 25, 2024, public meeting, which will take effect at the start of the 2025/26 school year, allowing time for families and staff to prepare. Given the current overutilization of some schools, it is possible changes for specific schools may need to happen as early as September 2024.

Potential solutions being considered:

• Converting C.W. Perry School into a high school. This will redistribute Grade 9 -12 students across Airdrie. C.W. Perry was chosen because of its location in the city and ability to accommodate high school level programming in its spaces.

• Grade 8 students staying in their current school for Grade 9, creating a more traditional Grade 10 - 12 high school model. This minimizes the changes for families as students stay in their schools for one more year; however, it impacts the programming options our Grade 9 students currently have and increases space pressures in some schools by adding a grade. It may also require adding or removing a grade level at some other schools.

• Re-organize grade structures across Airdrie schools to remove urgent pressures where possible (Kindergarten – Grade 6, Grade 7 – 9 and Grade 10 – 12). This addresses both high school utilization and standardizes grade configuration across the community.

Each possibility could have a range of impacts including prospective boundary changes/new designated schools for students, families and staff. We want to hear what you think about these potential solutions and other ideas you may have.

We believe it is important to share as much information as possible about what these changes could mean so families, staff and other stakeholders have a more complete picture to consider in providing feedback. We encourage you to review the information provided and share your thoughts.

RVSEngage.com will serve as the main resource for timely information and online feedback opportunities.

We understand how important this matter is to your family, and we are committed to finding the best possible solution for Airdrie students. A notice will be issued to all Airdrie families and RVS staff regarding any decision following the public meeting.

Thank you for your participation in this engagement. We highly value your feedback as essential input into the Board’s decision-making process. More information about creating and adjusting attendance areas can be found in Board Policy 23 School Attendance Areas.