After a successful meeting in January, RVS decided to hold a second public consultation meeting on February 13th to discuss boundaries and grade configurations for RJ Hawkey, Heloise Lorimer and Meadowbrook schools.

Due to an influx of students at Heloise Lorimer, new boundaries were presented to make sure new students would be spread evenly between the three schools.

Todd Brand, Board Chair with RVS, says that the second meeting was just as successful.

"We had our second meeting and about 120 people came out. There was a blend of some of the people that made it to the first one, plus some that were at the meeting and it was their (first time). We had some fresh voices. We quickly walked through what we went through with the first meeting and then shared the results of what we heard people say at that first meeting. We walked through some questions to kind of get an idea of what people were thinking would be some of the best ways forward, we reviewed those responses with them and then we shred four current alternatives that we thought are viable ways forward in terms of easing the accommodation crisis of Heloise Lorimer of course as they're approaching over-capacity. We presented the four different options, and then at round tables with facilitators, we gave everyone a chance to give input, pros and cons, to each of the four and then at the end, if they wanted, they could present, at their tables, other options that we might not have thought of yet."

Brand said the meetings were not just to inform people, but to take in information and suggestions from the public.

"It's actually something really curious to see what people put in as further options because sometimes we do get a new option that we hadn't been anticipating. We collected all that information and that is going to get processed and given to the board of trustees over the next couple of weeks and we will be reviewing those. There are still two more options for people to get information to us. One is through submitting a written response, a written recommendation, and I've received quite a few already. The other option they have is to do a public delegation at our March 7th board meeting coming up. They can make a presentation there to say they either do or they don't support certain options as well as (presenting) new options at that time (...)."

The meeting consisted of offering a few options for the schools, explains Brand.

"In a nutshell, two of (the options) were grade reconfigurations, so changing the grade structure of all three of the schools."

"The other two options were firm boundary revisions so that anyone living outside of a certain area outside of our maps would be designated to go to Meadowbrook or RJ Hawkey. Everyone inside that map area would be designated to stay at Heloise Lorimer. There were two different maps presenting slightly different ways of carving up the map in that area. One of them, including our grandfathered in a clause that would allow kids that are currently in the school, not siblings, but current students, to remain there until the end of grade 8. Younger kids coming up would be heading to a different school."

The final decision will be made later in the year and announced at an RVS board meeting.

"We will take those public delegations on Marth 7th and then at our April 4th board meeting is when we are projecting and anticipating to make the final decision and to send out information with the results on April 4th."

Brand says he is impressed with the amount of participation from the people of Airdrie in the public consultation meetings.

"We're really pleased so many people are engaged with the process. We're hearing some great ideas (and) great suggestions. There has been really good public participation with this and we're really grateful to see that."

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