The Board of Trustees of Rocky View Schools (RVS) is inviting residents to have their say on the division’s ward boundaries, currently under review, according to Board Chair Colleen Munro.
“We’ve put it out to the public because we want as many people to give us their opinion (as possible) about what RVS trustee makeup, ward boundaries look like going forward,” Munro said. “We could have made the decision ourselves but we decided that we’d get the expert minds that we deal with all the time, get their opinion and their solutions to this, too.”
The decision to conduct a ward boundary review at this time was driven by a requirement in the Alberta School Act, according to Munro.
“We are beyond the boundaries of the plus or minus 25 per cent representation by population rule of thumb. That parameter is in the school act,” she said.
Wards 1 and 5 have approximately 10,000 voters and one trustee per ward, whereas the City of Airdrie has a population of approximately 60,000 and two trustees – this means each trustee has 30,000 residents they represent.
“We’ve hired Brian Callaghan (from Alberta School Boards Association) to do the research for us, get us some updated numbers and then made the decision to at least put this on the table and review it, and get some help doing it,” Munro said.
A board motion will be debated in January and the result will be taken to Ministry of Education by early March.
“Any ward boundary changes must be to the Ministry six months ahead of a municipal election. We’re deadline-driven,” Munro said.
Albertans will head to the polls again in October 2017.
A series of open houses are being held throughout the division to provide information and collect input on the options Callaghan has put together for the board of trustees. Anyone unable to attend an open house can also provide feedback through an online survey at rockyview.ab.ca
“Any municipal voters can log in and give us their comments on the five different scenarios that we’ve got put together,” Munro said.
The open houses are being held in Cochrane at RancheView School, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m., Chestermere High School, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m., Springbank Middle School, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. and the RVS Education Centre in Airdrie, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. Each open house is slated for approximately an hour and a half.
More information is available at rockyview.ab.ca
