FSD Okotoks & Area Schools Configuration Review

The following engagement is to address the Board of Trustees’ decision in December 2023 to table the boundary review of Okotoks schools to the 2024-2025 school year:

To better understand the perception of school capacity concerns, Foothills School Division is engaging with families of its Okotoks and area K-9 schools. The following survey will request your demographic information and will provide facts for your consideration. The survey will conclude with one question pertaining to school boundary configuration.  The plan is to best serve our students and to allow for equity across schools in Okotoks and area, as well as across the division.

You can anticipate this survey to take five minutes to complete. Here are a few resources for your consideration while you are completing this survey:

1. Definitions:
   • Reconfiguration: means the addition or removal of one (1) or more grades to or from another school. It can also refer to changes in school attendance areas.  
   • Boundary / Catchment: a geographical area surrounding a school from which it will usually take most of its students. Catchment areas are based on a child's permanent address and are subject to chance as per Policy 12.
   • Grandfathering: exempt from the changes to a school’s boundary if you are already enrolled there. If grandfathering is not allowed, you will not be able to stay at the school you are enrolled in if the boundary changes and you are designated to attend a different school. This does not include enrollment into an alternative program at a non-catchment school.
2. Policy 12 – School Configurations
3. Administrative Procedure 305 – School Attendance Areas
4. Okotoks Boundary Review Report 2023
5. Enrollment Trends
   • Enrollment into early year grades is in alignment with lower birth rates indicated in the 2022 Census.
   • Divisionally this school year we projected 719 Grade 12's and 500 Kindergarten students entering.
   • There are 85 fewer students currently enrolled in Kindergarten to Grade 2 than Grades 7 to 9 at Meadow Ridge School. 
6. Sample scenarios:
   1. Impact of a boundary change on individual class sizes: A large class size in grade 3 may not be reduced if the boundary changes and a majority of families in that class remain unaffected by the change.
   2. Impact of  a boundary change on staffing: If a boundary review moves 100 students to a different school, a proportionate number of teachers and support staff will also need to be redeployed

We thank you for your participation and for informing decisions at Foothills School Division.