This petition is prepared to show our major concern and disappointment for excluding the community of Larry-Uteck (Transom Drive, Starboard Drive, Fleetview Drive) from the “Broad Street Update: Final Plan” email received on 02-Feb-2023 from Halifax Regional Centre of Education (HRCE).

Below are the key concerns of the families of our community.

Thought Exchange Feedback Process

The opinion of members of our community is, the “Thought exchange” process was flawed for the following reasons:

- The consultation process encouraged multiple thoughts as often as individuals wished with no limits to participation. For instance, an individual could share one thought multiple times which may be misrepresented to be the collective opinion of the community.

- The survey was targeted at only sharing ideas. We believe the proposed boundary for our community already took care of our ideas and the messaging conveyed was not represented as a need for a confirmation or re-iteration of a boundary that already included our children.

- The feedback gathering process was not designed in a such a way that community representation was verifiable. Any individual with the link was able to provide their thoughts and it is disappointing that a decision so important as these impacting our community at large will be based on an easily manipulated process.

Pre-primary configuration change

There were changes made in the final boundary that were not contemplated in the proposal such as the decision to remove Pre-primary grade from the Bedford South School and have young kids attend a school further away from our community. It is even more worrying that the boundary proposal makes pre-primary program inaccessible for members of our community. The pre-primary program has been an available option for children in our community and families will now have to face the difficult option of choosing between incurring additional costs for childcare or go through the emotional stress of having younger children attend a school so far from home without the company of older siblings. Our community cannot even imagine what early school closures will look like with the proposed pre-primary school plan. Family with 2 or more children are affected drastically as it will be not feasible and more stressful to arrange pick-up for children in case of emergency, early dismissals, or any other reason.

Grade PP-12 education will be in 5 different schools

Our community hoped the new school was going to be a source of relief and reduce the number of transitions between schools to provide our children opportunities to focus on their educational programs rather than working on acclimatizing to a new school environment.

Kids in our community will have to attend 5 different schools for Elementary, Middle and High school education with the final boundaries given by HRCE. This change will lead to instability which results from exposures to new learning environment and relationships. The mental health of our children is our priority and we are hoping for a reduction in number of school transitions for our kids. A challenge we hoped will end with the opening of the Broad Street School. It is unfortunate that our community will be the most impacted by the changes to the finalized boundary based on the number of transitions from Pre-primary to High School. These consequences of instability can be averted if the voice of our community is heard.

French immersion

As of today, no provision has been made for enrollment in the early French immersion program for families in our community. Members of our community must enroll for out-of-area requests which are sometimes denied due to the program competition. In addition to this, Parents are responsible for transportation of children attending schools outside the assigned schools. Our children are limited in their communication reach, an option that should be readily available and accessible to every child. The final boundary proposal seems to be limiting and does not reflect the inclusive culture of our broader community and Province. Our children want to have access to options available to other children, their voices and communication reach matter.

Higher tax with no benefits

The houses in the neighbourhood of Larry Uteck extensions are newly constructed (on the average less than 3 years old) with high tax revenues being generated in the area. Parents making such a huge contribution to our province should enjoy the benefits of new developments and amenities in the area.

Rocky lake elementary (RLE) School for Grade-6:

Rocky lake elementary school used to be a Bedford Learning center. This building was not purposed for an elementary school. This school was made as a temporary arrangement until broad street school is opened. Based on our knowledge, this school was planned to be shut down after the planned opening date of the Board Street School in September 2023. The RLE school does not have any of the minimum amenities for the kids to learn. Our kids enrolled at RLE feel isolated from the regular school settings, below are the key problems with the RLE school facility:

§ Building is very old

§ No playground & play structures

§ No Cafeteria for food to order

§ No proper library

§ Temporary Gym space is arranged but it is not proper

§ Bathrooms are very old and unhygienic

Making Grade-6 students attend this school is isolating the kids from being in the school like environment where they can interact and socialize with other age kids. This will impact the kids physical and mental health.

Final Decision made without proper voting/Feedback:

The final decision was made without parents consent or feedback. The process was not clear to most parents. The “Thought Exchange” portal was a means for parents to give their thoughts not to agree or disagree on the boundary. Parents did not know that this portal would result in a drastic exclusion of our neighbourhood which were originally assigned to the Broad Street School in the proposed boundary plan. The final decision included grade reconfiguration for Bedford south school that was not part of the initial communications from the HRCE.

The Broad Street School was meant to bring relief to families in this community. But the final plan will undoubtedly increase the burden on both parents and kids in our community.

We as a community living in Transom drive, Starboard drive, Fleetview Drive would request you to include our kids (PP – Grade12) in broad street school boundary as per the initial proposed plan. We believe that the initial boundary proposal was an outcome of meaningful deliberations after considerations of the growth projections in the Larry Uteck area which reflected that there was capacity for our community to attend the Broad Street School. We seek verifiable data and analysis to support the final boundary decision to exclude the neighbourhood of Transom drive, Starboard drive, Fleetview Drive from the final boundary decision on the Broad Street School, this entirely negates the initial plan.