Hamilton’s public school board is set to reveal a plan to address severe overcrowding at a Waterdown elementary school after parents opposed an initial proposal for the addition of more portable classrooms.
Parents and staff of Mary Hopkins Elementary School gathered for a public meeting Monday evening to discuss their concerns regarding the increasing number of students.
Carley Casey is the chair of the student council at Mary Hopkins and has three children who attend the school.
She says she’s concerned students don’t have equitable access to physical education with 29 classes needing to fit into one gym. According to Casey, the number of bathrooms is also an issue.
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“It’s very hard to keep bathrooms clean for 700 children, especially when you have a limited number of them. We have two male and two female washrooms.”
Casey says with over 700 students currently enrolled, the school is 170 per cent over capacity.
“It is affecting their education. Our EQAO scores are significantly below provincial standards.”
She says that provincial math scores were around 39 per cent, while both reading and writing scores were in the 50’s.
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Angela Devall, a parent council member at Flamborough Centre Elementary School, says Waterdown is in need of a new elementary school. Mary Hopkins has already added four portables this school year, bringing the total on site to 10.
“Just with natural growth next year they will have to go to 12 and with the new side division going in they’ll actually have to go to 13 (portables). They’re maxed out at the electrical grid at 12.” said Devall.
Mary Hopkins feeds students to Flamborough Elementary for grades six through eight. Both schools offer French immersion, drawing students from the surrounding schools in the area.
Devall says in order to keep up with the growth in numbers, facilities at Flamborough Centre need upgrades.
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In an effort to ease enrollment pressure, the school board is looking to expand the boundary to include three other schools: Balaclava Elementary, Guy B. Brown Elementary and Allan A. Greenleaf Elementary.
In a statement, the student council chair of Allan A. Greenleaf, Glen Spry said in part, “This is a big decision for our community, one that will have ramifications for hundreds of kids over the next three years.”
A representative from the HWDSB said in a statement, “These temporary scenarios look to balance enrolments and make best use of all facilities.”
Adding, “The HWDSB is hopeful that a new Waterdown elementary school will open in 2027 after a successful receipt of funding, expected this spring, from the Ministry of Education.”
Similar concerns were raised by parents at Eastdale Elementary School in Stoney Creek last month who said the increasing number of portables at that school would inevitably impact the experience of students there.
