Thank you to all families who participated in Elk Island Public Schools’ (EIPS) recent public consultations for James Mowat Elementary. At the November 17 Board meeting, the Division presented the feedback collected from families, related background documents and a recommendation for trustees to review about how to best address James Mowat Elementary's enrolment pressures.
Following discussions with administration regarding the public consultations, the Board of Trustees approved the following recommendations:
- introduce a Random Selection Process Pilot to address the enrolment pressures at James Mowat Elementary, based on the Closed-Boundary Priority Scale—effective for the 2023-24 school year;
- make Fort Saskatchewan Elementary the alternate-designated school for the James Mowat Elementary attendance area;
- allow grandfathering for all current students enrolled at James Mowat Elementary; and
- apply busing fees as outlined in the Transportation Fee Schedule.
What does this mean?
If your child currently attends James Mowat Elementary, whether you reside within or outside the school boundary area, they may continue attending the school until they transition to junior high.
If your child has younger siblings and is returning to James Mowat Elementary next year, the siblings may also register to attend James Mowat Elementary, and all children may attend until they transition to junior high.
If the number of new students who wish to register at James Mowat Elementary exceeds the available space for a specific grade, the school accepts children using the random selection process. New students who are not selected through that process are designated to attend Fort Saskatchewan Elementary.
Important next steps
In preparation for the upcoming registration season, EIPS will also:
- update the Student Transportation fee schedule to include information about an alternate-designated school;
- update attendance boundary maps to include the alternate-designated school; and
- develop communication materials for the Random Selection Process Pilot to ensure new families have all the necessary information.
What you need to know
Registration for the 2023-24 school year remains unchanged and takes place in February 2023. The Division will send more information about the process for new and returning student registration early in the new year. If you already have a child attending James Mowat Elementary and expect another child to start kindergarten in 2023-24, make sure to complete the kindergarten registration in February 2023.
More information about the James Mowat Elementary public-consultation process is available at eips.ca. If you have questions, submit them using the submit a question form on the Division website. EIPS also encourages families to subscribe to updates.
As always, EIPS will keep school families updated as the process progresses and will share more information about the new random selection process before the Christmas break.