To address growing enrolment pressures at Catholic elementary schools, an option to have some Grade 7 and 8 students go to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School to make it a Grade 7 to 12 school is being floated around by the Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB).
Currently, all Grade 7 and 8 students at WCDSB are in its elementary schools.
Lourdes was a Grade 7 to 10 school many years ago, said Michael Glazier, director of education at WCDSB.
The centre west area of Guelph is where WCDSB is looking at for enrolment and how else it can accommodate students. A review committee was formed with two parent representatives from each possibly impacted school and it came up with two options for grade structure changes and attendance areas.
Since then there have been public information sessions about the options where feedback and questions were discussed between parents, families, community members and WCDSB staff.
It's in the public information phase so no formal recommendations have gone to the board yet.
Here are the options from its grade structure information:
Option one
- Have Grade 7 and 8 students from St. Peter Catholic Elementary School and St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Guelph go to Lourdes making it a Grade 7 to 12 school (2026/2027 school year)
- The attendance area indicated as SJ2 on the map is the area of St. Joseph and with the change it would then be the attendance area for Sacred Heart Catholic School in Guelph (2026/2027 school year)
- Sacred Heart in Rockwood would be a feeder school for Bishop Macdonell (2028/2029 school year)
Option two
- Grade 7 and 8 students from St. Joseph would go to Mary Phelan Catholic School, a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 school (2026/2027 school year)
- Mary Phelan would be a feeder school for Lourdes (2026/2027 school year)
- The attendance area indicated as SJ2 on the map is the area of St. Joseph would then be the attendance area for Sacred Heart (2026/2027 school year)
- Sacred Heart would be a feeder school for Bishop Macdonell (2026/2027 school year)
The reason behind these specific schools is for better utilization to ease enrolment pressures as growing enrolment projections are forecasted.
There were different options staff had been looking at but through listening to the review committee, these are the two options it came up with but there were other iterations of it, said Glazier. With this process it’s still in a phase where staff is listening to parents at its information sessions, the review committee and a survey has been launched to hear from more people.
"We heard from the review committees as to what their thoughts are and what are the things that we should be considering if we do make any moves in this area, and we take that all very seriously," he said. With the best of WCDSB's ability, it wants to make the best decision for all students and families impacted, Glazier said.
Some of the questions people have been asking at the information sessions are about what student schedules would look like for a Grade 7 to 12 school, would there be separate entrances for students, how safety concerns are addressed and would students be able to access different programs at the secondary level.
Since the grade structure review started roughly two years in advance of possible changes the board is aiming to continue being flexible with timing so it can hear from more people on this. The hope is there will be a decision in the spring and implementation planning would start then, said Tracy McLennan, associate director at WCDSB, in an interview.
With WCDSB’s Long Term Accommodation Plan (LTAP) three elementary schools within the centre west area of Guelph including Guelph township are at or overcapacity.
For St. Joseph in Guelph, the on the ground capacity, which doesn’t include portables is 337. In the 2023/2024 school year the enrolment was 380. The projected enrolment for 2026/2027 if it remains status quo is 438. If option one was implemented for 2026/2027 it would be 346 for projected enrolment and the same for option two.
At St. Peter the on the ground capacity is 501 but the LTAP hasn’t been updated to reflect this yet. Its enrolment for 2023/2024 was 462. If things were to remain status quo the projected enrolment would be 591 for 2026/2027. If option one was implemented for the same school year the projected enrolment would be 476, and for option two it would be 591.
Sacred Heart in Rockwood has an on the ground capacity of 268. In 2023/2024 the enrolment was 314. Its projected enrolment if it remains status quo for 2026/2027 is 342. If option one was implemented for 2026/2027 the projected enrolment would be 350 and the same for option two.
Mary Phelan in Guelph has an on the ground capacity of 291. Enrolment was 182 for the 2023/2024 school year. If it stayed status quo the projected enrolment would be 197 for 2026/2027. If option one was implemented 197 would be the projected enrolment for 2026/2027 and if it were option two, 270 is the projection.
Lourdes has an on the ground capacity of 945, which isn't reflected in the LTAP or grade structure poster boards yet. Enrolment for the 2023/2024 school year was 657. If it remained status quo the projected enrolment for 2026/2027 would be 679. With option one the projected enrolment for the same year would be 679 and would be the same for Grade 9 to 12 and for Grade 7 to 8 would be 188. Option two it would be 678 for Grade 9 to 12 and zero for Grade 7 to 8 since this option doesn't Grade 7 to 8 at the school.
There will be opportunities to delegate at a future board meeting but there isn't a specific timeline for when the recommendations and discussions will come to the board yet, said Ali Lupal, WCDSB communications lead, through email.
