Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools will continue preparations to re-open a shuttered north-end elementary in time for the 2025-26 school year.
At the school district’s Oct. 11 business committee meeting, trustees reaffirmed plans to open Rutherford Elementary School in September 2025 and voted to form a committee to assist with the planning, which includes determining catchment for Rutherford and other schools in its vicinity, as well as programming, according to staff.
Rutherford’s re-opening was contingent on updated enrolment and according to numbers compiled by staff, schools near Rutherford all saw year-over-year increases, with Frank J. Ney Elementary accommodating 441 students, an increase of 20 students from September 2022, and École Hammond Bay reporting 388 students, an increase of 13. Overall, the catchment area grew by 46 students year-over-year.
While the board originally passed a motion in May to re-open Rutherford, Mark Walsh, district secretary-treasurer, said fall enrolment numbers were important to ensure viability. Staff are satisfied “that the numbers are bearing out,” he said at the meeting, though there are still risks.
“If enrolment, all of a sudden, does start to decline, we could be in a position where we don’t meet those numbers and there’s an operational dollar impact on the school district, however, we’re seeing [increases] at Frank Ney from an enrolment perspective, we’re right in line at Departure Bay, I think we exceeded at McGirr a little bit, [Randerson Ridge] is right on the line where it needs to be and that’s with us even dissuading people from entering,” the secretary-treasurer said.
New apartment buildings built near Randerson Ridge, along with more that are slated to open, are leading to increased enrolment, he said.
“We think that it is a supportable decision to take the next steps to open [Rutherford] for September 2025 and give us now a significant amount of time … to get it back to the board. The boundaries, how the school’s going to open, will be to the board by January 2025,” Walsh said.
The motion passed unanimously and will now go before the school board at its meeting Wednesday, Oct. 25.
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