Anglophone East schools 'bursting at the seams,' changes coming

The Anglophone East School District in southeast New Brunswick has seen "unprecedented" enrolment growth in the last few years — forcing the district to look for solutions such as boundary changes.

Randolph MacLean, the superintendent for the district, said the current enrolment is around 18,350 students — that's 2,265 more than what was projected for this school year last June.

Speaking at a District Education Council meeting this week, MacLean said as enrolment grows, however, they're not seeing an increase in space.

"We're seeing, over a decade, potentially a growth of over 7,000 students in the exact same infrastructure."

According to Statistics Canada, Moncton saw the fastest growth rate out of all census metropolitan areas in 2021-22, at a rate of 5.3 per cent.

Several schools in the district have seen high enrolment growth in the last few years, pushing them past their maximum capacity.

According to the district's enrolment growth strategy, Riverview East, Moncton High and Shediac Cape schools all have auxiliary space used as classrooms, and each has multiple portable classrooms:

• Riverview East, K-8, 123 students above capacity, eight portables.

• Moncton High School, 125 students above capacity, eight portables with four more coming.

• Shediac Cape, K-8, 84 students above capacity, six portables.

Lou MacNarin School in Dieppe, and Northrop Frye School in Moncton were initially both K-8 schools, but due to area growth they are now K5, and older students in the area attend Lewisville and Maplehurst middle schools. The growth strategy shows that both schools are still close to 100 students over capacity.

MacLean said there is a need for new schools, but the process of requesting and approving schools can take five to 10 years.

In the meantime, he said the district is proposing possible boundary changes and grade configuration for certain schools, with Riverview East, Shediac Cape and Lou MacNarin impacted for the 2023-24 school year.

There are different options that could be implemented, he said. For Riverview East students, one scenario is to move Grades 6-8 to Riverview Middle School.

There are also two different boundary change options which would move some students from Riverview East to Hillsborough Elementary and Caledonia Regional High School, around 22 kilometres south of Rivervew East.

For Shediac Cape, MacLean said a new K-12 school in Shediac that would hold around 675 students is in the works.

There are also two possible boundary changes which would send Shediac Cape students to Port Elgin Regional School, around 50 kilometres away.

A new school for Grades 6-12 has been requested for Dieppe, which MacLean said would take pressure off Moncton High School and Lou MacNarin. Four portables have also been requested for Lou MacNarin for September, he said.

"Portables are a short-term solution to a long-term problem," he said.

The growth strategy shows two possible boundary changes to take pressure off Lou MacNarin, which would have some students move to Dorchester Consolidated School, about 34 kilometres away.

Consultations coming

The next step in the process is to hold public consultations to discuss the grade configuration in the district and boundary changes. According to the district, the dates for the those will be announced soon.

Dominic Vautour, a member of the Anglophone East District Education Council, urged the public to attend the consultations and share any comments or even suggest better ideas.

He said the changes are not going to be finalized until after there is public input.

"We're not doing this because we want to. We really don't want to do this," he said, regarding the possible boundary changes and grade reconfiguration.

"But we have to…. Our schools are bursting at the seams."