To help meet the need for more classrooms, trustees recently approved a modification to the board’s long-term capital plan that would see a 10- room addition at Bruce Trail elementary school open in September 2010.

Milton Trustee Donna Danielli said the long-term plan is a fluid document that’s meant to be updated to reflect new information gathered by the board.

In this case, she said the addition reflects the changing demographics in the Bruce Trail school area.

Business Superintendent Steven Parfeniuk said the area is one of “great growth” and that the addition is needed even though three new elementary schools are expected to open between 2009 and 2010 in west and south Milton.

“There’s still a considerable undeveloped area within the current catchment for Bruce Trail, and we continue to expect kids to move to that area.”

Hawthorne Village and Chris Hadfield elementary schools are already at capacity and may need more portable classrooms in the future. Parfeniuk said the board looks at the need for portables each spring, so at this point it’s not known when the additional portables may be required.

“Those schools will see some relief when we open the new schools,” he noted.

According to statistics from board planners, the number of students enrolled in Milton’s elementary schools sat at 4,677 at the start of this school year. That number is expected to go up to 6,242 by 2010. The three new schools will create about 2,100 pupil places, meaning for the first time in a long time, there’ll be extra capacity available.

“We think we’re getting ahead of the curve,” Parfeniuk said.

Since the extra capacity will largely be in west Milton, he said the board would still prefer to build the addition at Bruce Trail school to accommodate the students in that area, as opposed to busing them across town.

Currently there’s no suitable land available to build more new schools in east Milton. Parfeniuk said there’s a small piece of land west of James Snow Parkway that may be developed in the future, but it’s currently being farmed.

“There are also other (properties) that are too close to existing schools,” he said.

Danielli explained that when a developer puts forward its proposal to the Town, it also goes before the school board, which identifies the land it would like within the subdivision to build a new school.

She said since the Town hasn’t moved into its next phase of residential development yet, there are currently no opportunities to identify more school lands in east Milton.

So what does the board plan to do about the lack of land?

“We’re trying to make the best accommodation plan that we can,” Parfeniuk said.

He said the board’s plan for Milton is to build one school a year for the next few years, with two opening on the west side of town in 2009.

While the new elementary schools will help with accommodation issues, they’ll also impact school boundaries, said Danielli.

Currently, the boundary issue is being looked at by the Milton Supercouncil, which is a group of Milton school council chairs, administrators, Danielli and Superintendent of Education Yaw Obeng.

The Supercouncil is proposing modifications to the boundaries for most of Milton’s elementary schools and is holding a public meeting at Chris Hadfield School tomorrow night at 7 p. m. to hear from parents on the issue.

“Unfortunately these are necessary changes,” said Danielli, but noted some of them are quite minor.

The trustee said she thinks the most controversial proposed change will be at Hawthorne Village School, where the Supercouncil is looking to take students living in the area north of the pipeline between Thompson Road and Armstrong Boulevard and redirect them to one of the new schools in 2010.

“Hawthorne Village is an amazing school. The parent loyalty to the school is inspiring,” said Danielli.

“Nobody wants to leave this school, but right now there are too many students in there. We don’t want to move them, but we have to. We think this is the best solution.”

Parfeniuk said the board will continue working with the community to ensure it meets students’ needs.

Danielli encouraged parents to come out to the boundary meeting tomorrow night to share their thoughts.

For more information on the proposed boundary changes visit www.hdsb.ca , click on ‘Parents & Community,’ then on ‘Planning Department’ and then on ‘Milton Supercouncil 2008-2009.’

-with files from Tim Whitnell

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com .