A North Vancouver family is questioning how school officials decide who attends local schools after they were told there might not be room for their children at Capilano Elementary - even though they live in the neighbourhood.
Alex Minshull and his wife Maria Cook said they've been told they won't know if there's space for their kids - aged six and nine - at their local school until September. But Minshull said a high proportion of students attending Capilano - popular for its International Baccalaureate program - are coming from outside the catchment area. Minshull said he doesn't think that's right.
"It's absolutely not fair that people within the catchment area have to play second fiddle to people who are driving their kids in from elsewhere," he said.
According to the school district, about 30 per cent of students now attending Capilano Elementary come from outside the school's catchment area.
That's largely due to the school's International Baccalaureate program - the only one of its kind offered at the elementary school level in North Vancouver. In just five years, the school has gone from the brink of closure when it was filling only 45 per cent of its classroom space to more than 95 per cent capacity.
Minshull and his family moved to North Vancouver's Tatlow Avenue from Vancouver's West End in October. They wanted to move out of their apartment and into a home with a yard that would be more suitable for their active boys.
Minshull said he and his wife looked for a home for nine months before deciding on the Pemberton Heights neighbourhood. One of their prerequisites was that the home be in a catchment area for a good school, said Minshull.
He and Cook looked at the Fraser Institute's annual ratings for schools and talked to other parents to decide that Capilano fit that description. They were also interested in the IB program, he said.
Since the move, the kids have continued attending their school in the West End, planning to switch to a North Vancouver school at the start of the upcoming school year.
The family registered the children - who will be going into grades 2 and 4 next year - with the school district back in January, noting Capilano as their first choice of school. But in April - when they'd expected an answer - "we heard nothing," said Minshull. Since then, the family has been told they won't know if they have a place at the school until the term starts in September.
Minshull said that news has been disappointing. "We have the idealistic view of our kids walking to school," he said. The family's second choice - Larson elementary - would mean they'd have to drive.
Cook said not knowing has had other impacts on the family as well. It's harder for the kids to make friends and to get to know other people in the neighbourhood, because a school is such a big part of a community, she said.
The success of the International Baccalaureate program has put Capilano Elementary into a unique situation, said Greg Milner, district principal of administrative services for the North Vancouver school district. "People see that as a draw and they like to go there," he said.
When it comes to new registrations for schools, students who live inside a school's catchment area are given first priority, he said. Second priority are kids whose brothers or sisters are already attending the school.
Children who live within the school district are also given priority over kids from outside it.
Once a child starts school, however, the district allows them to continue at that school, said Milner, regardless of who moves into the area. That means a child from outside the catchment who has already started attending Capilano will have priority over a child who lives closer.
When a school is especially popular, provincial class size limits will mean sometimes it just isn't possible to fit everyone in, he said. That was the case this year with a few students who'd hoped to attend Capilano elementary, he said. Minshull's children are among four students potentially facing the same situation in September.
Often a school might be "full" in some grade levels and not in others, added Milner.
It's not unheard of for families to move with the specific goal of being inside a particular catchment area, he said. When they get left out, they usually aren't happy.
Milner said the school keeps a close eye on enrolment - which can change as families move in and out of areas over the summer.
In most cases - between 75 and 80 per cent - families do get into the school they choose, he said. But there are exceptions.
