C.K., W.K. eyes Berwick Grade 9 numbers

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

The Grade 9 class at Berwick School is a coveted set of numbers for two high schools.

Town students at the Berwick school are supposed to head to West Kings for Grade 10, but they’ve had a choice for about 15 relaxed years of boundary enforcement. A minority end up at Central Kings.

This year, it’s close to half.

Berwick principal Andre Tessier says there are 51 Grade 9 students at Berwick this year; Central Kings vice-principal Graeme King says early projections have 21 of them coming there in the fall.

At the West Kings Parent Teacher Student Association meeting April 8, president Vanda Dow suggested it may be time the school board looks at those boundaries. “This year, it was obvious when we went to do our orientation there appears to be a swing, and that affects our programs and our staff allocation.”

Dow is also an office staff member at West Kings, but says any changes in staff at the school would not likely affect her position. Twenty-five or 30 students typically represents one staff member. “We’re asking for clarification of the catchment area, so this can go to bed,” Dow says, describing a letter the PTSA will be sending to Valley regional school board superintendent Norm Dray. “This is a whole community that gets a choice, not a street or a road. Why does that happen?”

She says there should be close to 40 of this year’s Berwick Grade 9s coming to West Kings in the fall.

Tessier says once the students leave Berwick, it’s not his school’s role to send them to either high school. “Around staffing time - January or February - we just send them the numbers we anticipate going either way. Who ends up where is a different story.”

Superintendent Dray says he has nothing official on the issue and will await a letter. Even then, it would take at least a year of community consultation before any boundaries are enforced or changed. “I don’t know when this started to be honest (he’s just been with the board for three years), but we do a thorough consultation with parents in the area and it takes a lot of time.”

Dray says both high schools have populations over 800 and “neither school is suffering from any enrollment concerns.”

C.K.’s King says, “we tell the kids, ‘Make up your minds and be sure.’ We’ve never gone recruiting, and we’re actually surprised at some of the kids who have come this way.”

Berwick home and school association co-president Dawn Morton says the issue will be on the agenda for their meeting April 22 at 7:15 p.m. “It’s something we should discuss, and probably something people are going to have strong opinions on.”