Media Release: Stratford Shows Support for Community Campus Vision
For Immediate Release: August 23, 2018
Last evening the Town of Stratford presented to residents the Town's vision for a "Community Campus" which would include combining a junior and senior high school alongside sports fields and facilities to be located on one property within the Town of Stratford boundaries.
The Community Campus is currently a long-term vision the Town would like to see happen in collaboration with the Public Schools Branch as a means to address the ongoing overcrowding issues in schools in the greater Charlottetown area. By co-locating school and sport infrastructure, the schools and community can share the facilities to increase access to facilities for students and community members and reduce costs.
"The meeting shows us that our community is in favour of this type of development," commented Stratford Mayor David Dunphy. "We received a clear message that we have the support to continue to move forward with this concept and are hopeful that new school infrastructure in Stratford will be recommended at the Public Schools Branch meeting next Wednesday. It is important that we have as many, or more, parents, grandparents and community minded residents attend the Public Schools Branch meeting next week to demonstrate to them how important this is for our community".
The presentation also included a summary of the report that the Atlantic Evaluation Group was contracted by the Town of Stratford to complete. There are ongoing discrepancies between the forecast number of students that the Public Schools Branch have been using which the Town of Stratford believes are understated and do not accurately reflect the growth that is taking place in our community.
"The latest census shows that our Town is the fastest growing community in all of Atlantic Canada and we have been first or second in the previous two Statistic Canada census reports as well," added Dunphy. "To then suggest that this will change in the next few years when the Province of PEI has an ambitious population growth strategy underway, and seeing as we have already surpassed our previous building permit year end values at this point in the year, doesn't make sense. We see only continued growth for Stratford looking ahead."
The Town of Stratford made similar presentations recently to both the Public Schools Branch and the Cabinet Committee on Priorities. School infrastructure has been a priority for the Town of Stratford Council for many years with the Town being fully engaged with the Public Schools Branch over the past couple of years as they continue with their review of existing enrollment numbers and infrastructure needs for the future. The Town would like to remind and encourage all residents to attend the upcoming Public Schools Branch Board of Directors Meeting on Wednesday, August 29th at 7pm. The meeting takes place at Stonepark Intermediate School in Charlottetown and the Charlottetown Area School Review Report is on the agenda.
"It is very important to continue to show support and the next step will be to have a large number of residents attend next week's meeting," added Dunphy. "The Town will certainly be in attendance and we are hopeful that we have been heard through this process. We are ready to move forward with the Community Campus and are excited at the prospect of working with the Public Schools Branch to see this happen".
The presentation slides and Community Campus Vision images as well as a previous media release can be found on the Town of Stratford's website.
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For more information please contact:
Robert Hughes, CAO
Phone: (902) 569-6251
Email: [email protected]
Printable version: Media Release -Stratford Shows Support for Community Campus Vision (August 23, 2018)
Previous Media Release can be found here.
Community Campus Open House Presentation: Stratford Community Campus (August 22 Powerpoint) -School and Sport Campus
Presentation Slides to Cabinet Priorities and Planning Committee: presentation to cabinet priorities and planning committee
Presentation Slides to Public Schools Branch: Presentation to the PSB re junior and senior high schools -updated
