Elementary school in London, Ont., caps enrolment, cites ‘unprecedented growth’

A school board in southwestern Ontario is capping enrolment at one of its elementary schools, citing what it called “unprecedented growth” in London.

The Thames Valley District School Board says students registered for White Oaks Public School after June 30 will be designated to Nicholas Wilson Public School, about two kilometres away.

The school board says transportation will be provided, and the decision has so far affected 25 students.

The board says there has been a rapid increase in the number of families in the attendance area of White Oaks, which has a capacity for around 1,000 students.

The board says it will be seeking approval from the Education Ministry for a new southwest London elementary school in a bid to accommodate what it calls the growing number of families.

The ministry greenlit funding in January 2022 to build a new $20.7-million southwest London elementary school, expected to be complete by the start of the 2025 school year, pending further approvals.

The association representing Ontario public school boards has previously raised the issue of rapid population growth with Education Minister Stephen Lecce in the context of the province’s target to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031.

In a letter from September 2022, the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association stressed the importance of regular and predictable capital funding as the province approaches a “period of nearly unprecedented growth.”

The London region is one of the fastest-growing urban centres in Ontario, with its population booming by 10 per cent between 2016 and 2021, to 543,551.

The Thames Valley District School Board serves around 85,000 students in London, St. Thomas, Woodstock and the surrounding counties.