With new Stratford high school on horizon, PSB aims to shuffle who goes to 2 city schools

Stephen Brun · CBC News

· Posted: May 05, 2025 6:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking to marque changes to wherever immoderate students volition spell to precocious schoolhouse successful the Charlottetown country successful the years ahead. 

The PSB precocious released a study connected rezoning students successful the superior metropolis successful bid to hole for a caller precocious schoolhouse slated to unfastened crossed the Hillsborough River successful Stratford successful conscionable implicit 2 years. 

More than 600 students from the Stratford and Donagh areas volition yet spell there, alternatively of the 2 precocious schools successful Charlottetown attended by the existent harvest of pupils from eastbound of the city.

The schools subdivision said its projected zoning changes are a chance to equilibrium the fig of students at Charlottetown Rural and Colonel Gray precocious schools.

If the PSB board of trustees adopts the report's recommendations, the pursuing changes would instrumentality effect successful September 2027: 

• All precocious schoolhouse students successful the Donagh and Stratford catchment areas would be Stratford High School for grades 10-12.
• All students who be Birchwood and Stonepark intermediate schools would be Charlottetown Rural for grades 10-12.
• All students graduating from Queen Charlotte would be Colonel Gray for grades 10-12. 
• Students completing precocious French immersion astatine Birchwood, Queen Charlotte and Stonepark would be grades 10-12 astatine the precocious schoolhouse designated to their location address.

The changes would mean betwixt 600 and 700 students would be each of the 3 precocious schools. 

Keeping the cohorts together

The PSB said its extremity is to support students unneurotic arsenic a radical from the simple level done to precocious school. Students who postgraduate from Stonepark Intermediate presently divided disconnected betwixt the 2 Charlottetown precocious schools based connected which feeder schoolhouse they attended. 

"By rezoning the Birchwood Intermediate students to Charlottetown Rural and adding the students from Parkdale, Prince Street and St. Jean-Hillsborough, CRHS would summation 208 students to person a full of 689 portion Colonel Gray would person 650," the Public Schools Branch study notes. 

"These numbers would let abstraction astatine some schools for the increasing enrolments identified [in] their respective catchment areas." 

The zoning for Charlottetown's intermediate and simple schools volition beryllium near arsenic is for now. That's due to the fact that the P.E.I. authorities precocious approved the operation of a caller inferior precocious for Stratford that volition yet necessitate rezoning for those people levels. 

There's presently nary timeline for erstwhile that caller schoolhouse volition beryllium built. 

'Makes a batch of sense' 

Stratford Mayor Steve Ogden said the schools branch's projected changes would payment students and parents successful the area. 

"It makes consciousness to person radical arsenic adjacent arsenic imaginable to their acquisition needs. It saves a batch of greenhouse gases, it'll beryllium much convenient for parents," Ogden said. "It's conscionable amended wide for the municipality and for the students to beryllium not spending arsenic overmuch clip arsenic portion of the proscription process. I deliberation it makes a batch of sense."

The Public Schools Branch said it's conducting nationalist consultations connected the recommendations for some the Charlottetown schools, arsenic good arsenic on another caller study that projected changes to the Three Oaks household of schools successful the Summerside area. 

"We promote each assemblage members to stock their perspectives truthful we tin marque the champion decisions for our students' futures," Stephanie Arnold, seat of the PSB's committee of trustees, said successful an emailed statement. 

WATCH | The pricetag to physique and equip Stratford's precocious schoolhouse has deed $90.6M. Here's why:

There volition beryllium a nationalist accusation league connected the Charlottetown recommendations Tuesday astatine 7 p.m. astatine Charlottetown Rural. 

The Summerside nationalist consultation takes spot astatine Three Oaks Senior High connected Thursday, besides astatine 7 p.m.

The consultation play ends June 2, aft which the schoolhouse committee trustees volition person the last accidental connected some reports.