Leo Hayes High School catchment area to change in 2017

The Anglophone West district education council's decision to shake up the catchment area for Leo Hayes High School will mean students from some areas outside of Fredericton's northside will not be attending the school they expected to in 2017.

The catchment area for Leo Hayes High School will be changed under a decision made on Thursday night by the district education council.

The change will affect high school students from Durham Bridge, Keswick Valley and parts of Maugerville and Lower St. Mary's.

Instead of attending Leo Hayes, those students will go to schools in Oromocto, Stanley or on the south side of Fredericton.

Students from those areas who are already attending Leo Hayes will be grandfathered and still continue to attend the school.

School loses 165 students

The decision, which will remove 165 students from Leo Hayes, was made in attempt to alleviate overcrowding at the school.

Jamie MacKenzie of Durham Bridge has four sons in the school system and the changes will result in three of them attending Leo Hayes and the fourth going to school in Stanley.

MacKenzie said he doesn't think there was enough consultation about the idea.

I understand the emotion 100 per cent. I'm simply looking at it from a capacity perspective and it helps us.- Brad Sturgeon, principal

"The parents that live in the areas that are being most affected deserve to know not after the fact, after the recommendations have already been accepted," he said.

Changing the catchment areas was one idea presented to the council last December in a $50,000 report it commissioned from Ernst & Young.

The study concluded changing the catchment area would be a more effective solution to overcrowding than building a new wing on the school at a cost of $7.7 million.

Leo Hayes opened 17 years ago and was designed for a student population of 1,500 students. However, Brad Sturgeon, the principal, said the school's population has been at 1,700 for at least seven years.

Sturgeon said the changes will create some breathing room in the school.

"I understand the emotion 100 per cent. I'm simply looking at it from a capacity perspective and it helps us," he said.