A boundary change approved by Niagara’s school board last night will shift about 125 St. Davids Public School students to Crossroads Public School next year — a move some Niagara-on-the-Lake parents argue was rushed and poorly communicated.
The District School Board of Niagara’s board of trustees approved the change at its Oct. 28 meeting, despite a petition and pleas from parents who said they learned of the proposal less than two weeks earlier.
Trustees granted initial approval at a program and planning committee meeting on Oct. 20, but final approval was required for the change to take effect.
The change moves Niagara on the Green and nearby rural properties, known as Zone A, from the St. Davids Public School catchment to Crossroads Public School starting next fall.
Board projections show St. Davids — operating with 462 students and five portables — will drop to about 324 students after the move, while Crossroads will rise to 551. New housing developments in the transfer area would add roughly 150 more students by 2034, if realized.
“A decision needs to be made to address enrollment pressures at St. Davids,” said board spokesperson Milica Petkovic in an email.
St. Davids has a capacity of 317 students and a projected enrollment of 462, with five portables on site. Crossroads is operating at 75 per cent capacity with no portables.
Transferring students would “help avoid additional capacity pressures at St. Davids” and make “effective use of space” at Crossroads, the board said in its Oct. 20 report.
A petition launched Oct. 24, put together by St. Davids parents Lynette Wang and Wenjie Li, who live in Niagara on the Green, gathered more than 100 verified signatures in four days.
It called on the board to delay the vote, hold a public meeting and release the data used to justify the change.
On Oct. 7, St. Davids principal Carl Glauser sent an email, which parents forwarded to The Lake Report, telling families the school’s population was “steadily growing” and that a report on enrollment and school space would be shared at an Oct. 20 meeting.
A link in the email directed families to check the board’s website for more information on Oct. 16. Parents who downloaded the agenda posted that afternoon would have learned of the proposed boundary change.
“We never heard about the boundary change until Oct. 17,” said Wang, who has a child in junior kindergarten at St. Davids. “I got (an) email.”
The email, sent Oct. 17 by Glauser, mentioned the boundary proposal briefly at the end of a routine school update.
Petkovic said “additional communication followed” and that “families transitioning to another school will receive further communication.”
The Oct. 17 email told families about the Oct. 20 meeting — but noted it was “not a public forum for input” — something confirmed by Wang, who said parents were allowed to listen but not speak.
Glauser did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
St. Davids parent Katherine Kivlichan said that from her understanding, “this has been in the works for a while.”
“They didn’t include the parents of Niagara on the Green in any of this development,” she said. “They neglected to tell us until the final moment and it was too late for us to actually speak up.”
“That’s a problem,” added Kivlichan, who has a child in Grade 3 and one going into junior kindergarten.
Parents question whether the fix will last.
“It seems like they relocated the capacity issue from one school to another school,” said Wang, citing board projections showing Crossroads exceeding its capacity by 2029.
It also affects child care for working families.
Kivlichan said she will lose her guaranteed after-school care for her kids at St. Davids.
“To find after-school care is like winning the lottery,” she said.
“Now, it’s just like, ‘Oh, well, you’re going to lose that and you’ve got to figure it out,’” she added. “Like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You haven’t even listened to us or our concerns.”
Mohsin Kamran, another St. Davids parent, said he and his wife both work full time and share one car, making it impossible to be home when school lets out. He has two children, one in senior kindergarten and a 10-month-old.
“That’s not just disrupting the kids’ mental well-being, their stability — but it’s also having an impact on parents, where we’re trying to provide them with the best opportunities out there,” he said.
Niagara on the Green parent Priya Litt said families with older students feel the change comes too late in their children’s school years to adjust.
For her daughter, now in Grade 7 and preparing to graduate in 2026-27, “starting at a new school for the last year before graduation is just simply not an option,” she said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, St. Davids parents Nancy and Jim Pakeman, who have children in grades 2 and 5 and live on Queenston Road between Concession 7 and Airport Road, asked trustees to adjust the map slightly “to include our small rural area” or to let those students finish elementary school at St. Davids “without interruption, or for the need of transportation.”
The Pakemans registered in advance to speak as delegates.
Families can apply individually to remain at the school, but transportation would not be provided, said Kelly Pisek, the board’s director of education.
When it came time to vote, trustee Mike Brousseau, also representing St. Catharines and NOTL, said he believes there is a lack of trust between parents and the board and since he did not see that being resolved during the meeting, he voted against the motion.
Trustee Helga Campbell, representing Niagara Falls, said she, too, was “really concerned about the issue of trust” and the “sense of miscommunication,” and said the school board should learn and listen going forward.
Petkovic said the board remains “committed to ongoing communication with families,” who, she said, “have been and continue to be encouraged to reach out to their school principal with any questions.”
“The board has successfully implemented similar boundary changes in several areas over the past three years,” she added.
