MEMORANDUM

TO: FROM: Board of Trustees Lucy Miller, Ed.D. Chief Superintendent Senior Administration January 18, 2012 School Closure St. John Fine Arts School

ORIGINATOR: DATE: SUBJECT:

The current grade 4-6 Fine Arts program offered at St. John School originated in 1985, following the June 1983 closure of the school as a neighbourhood elementary program. The desire to have such a program in a central location coincided with the desire to retain a Catholic school presence in the area (neither St. Pius School nor St. Paul School was operational at the time and Madeleine dHouet School had just re-opened as a French Immersion program one year earlier). The program opened with 104 students in its first year, quickly grew to 180+ in year two and has maintained a fairly consistent and solid enrolment up to a noticeable decline in Grade 4 for the current 2011/12 school year. Enrolments have been as high as 196 students in each of 1990 and 1991, and as low as 141 in 1994. For the current 2011/12 school year, students attend St. John School from over 50 different Calgary communities, predominantly from north of the Bow River and west of Deerfoot Trail. In the immediate communities surrounding the school, bounded by Crowchild Trail to the west, 16th Avenue to the north, Centre Street to the east and the Bow River to the south, there are currently 13 students, with over half in Grade 6. Alternately, over 60 students are currently identified in northwest communities on either side of Crowchild Trail, from Shaganappi Trail to the city limits. This distribution of students indicates that a program location further north and west up the Crowchild corridor would be beneficial from an access and transportation point of view. Administration is recommending that the Board consider closing St. John School and relocate the Fine Arts program to St. Dominic School in Dalhousie. The proposed closure and program relocation would be effective in September 2012. In order to move forward with a proposed school closure, the School Act and our district regulation NEPN: FCB requires that the Board pass a motion to begin a process of considering the closure of the school. If the motion is approved, the process of working with parents, administration and staff on the most effective way to proceed would follow.

Recommendation: THAT the Board of Trustees approve that Administration take all necessary actions and proceedings consistent with the School Act and its Regulations to address the proposed closure of St. John School and the transfer of its students, and the relocation of the Fine Arts Program to another district school.