Over the past few weeks HMBCA Director of Public Relations Ryan Knuth has been attending the new Half Moon Bay Elementary School Grade, Program and Attendance Boundary Study on behalf of the Half Moon Bay community.

The following information is courtesy of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board:

In April 2014, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (Board) received capital funding for the construction of the new Half Moon Bay elementary school. The new school's capacity is expected to be 674 pupil places.

In May 2013, the Board acquired an elementary school site in the Half Moon Bay community located at the northwest corner of River Run Avenue and Riverboat Heights. Construction of the new school is anticipated to commence in the spring to early summer of 2015 and be completed in time for a September 2016 opening.

On the evening of Tuesday, February 24th, 2015 the Board approved a consultation plan and timeline which commenced in March 2015.

The consultation process involves the creation of a working group which consists of two representatives from each study area school (Barrhaven PS, Chapman Mills PS, Jockvale ES, Mary Honeywell ES and Cedarview PS), board staff, as well as representatives from local community associations (Half Moon Bay, Hearts Desire and Stonebridge).

The working group has met twice thus far and will continue to meet throughout the Spring of 2015 at various local schools. The goal of the working group is to come to a consensus regarding accommodation options to be presented at a Public Consultation Meeting where further community input will be sought. The public meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place in October 2015, with final decisions to be made by Board in late 2015.

Although the main focus of the consultation process will be to set the new school's program, grade structure, and attendance area, a number of other key issues will be examined.

The possibility of revising the grade structures of elementary schools which feed to Cedarview Middle School will be looked at. This change was discussed during the 2011 review and would result in uniform JK-6 grade structure for all South Nepean elementary schools. This change would also help alleviate growing enrolment pressures at Cedarview Middle School.

The study will also examine the potential for introducing a new Middle French Immersion program at a second South Nepean school in the future. This change would provide more localized access to the program for students residing in the western portion of the community and help to better balance enrolments.

At this point in time, the working group has examined a number of options which have included varying attendance areas and grade structures for the new school. The preferred option currently is one where the new facility would be a JK-6 dual-track school offering both English and EFI programs, and would have an attendance boundary which serves all of Half Moon Bay and Stonebridge West. Under this option, Cedarview MS would become a Grade 7-8 middle school. All of its feeder elementary schools would become JK-6 schools.