Population boom on the way
130 Oxford County students intend to attend DDSS
Posted By Barbara Simpson — Delhi News-Record
Updated 6 months ago
Grade 9 students Nancy Lassen and Torianne Kirk stride down a busy hallway after morning classes at DDSS. The hallways could get even busier if all 130 Oxford County students, who have filed applications to study at DDSS, follow through with their intentions next school year. (Barbara Simpson Delhi News-Record)
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Merely years after facing the possibility of closure, Delhi District Secondary School (DDSS) may now, in an ironic twist of fate, face the possibility of overcapacity.
To date, 130 Oxford County students — hailing from the soon-to-be defunct Norwich District High School and its feeder public schools — have submitted option sheets confirming their intentions to attend the Delhi high school next fall. Currently, DDSS houses 410 students in a facility that has been "right sized" to handle 474 students at capacity.
If these Oxford students do follow through with their intentions, there could be several trickledown effects for the current largely local student population next year.
"It's pretty exciting for us," said principal Shayne Mann on Friday.
Reviewing the option sheets, a spectrum of new courses — and further, more sections of a particular course — can now be offered. In some previous circumstances, there may have been only one section of a course offered or a course may not have run at all due to few students expressing interest in it.
"They (courses) have some very healthy, healthy numbers to them," he said.
But along with the benefits to current students comes the logistics of both transporting and housing these Oxford students in the Delhi high school. In fact, the Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) reviewed a report offering possible solutions to accommodating this onslaught of students on Monday night.
While GEDSB has no obligation to provide transportation to students outside of the board jurisdiction, there are some cost effective solutions to delivering bus service to these Oxford students, penned Jamie Gunn, the board's superintendent of business and treasurer, in the report. Three strategies — extending the existing Teeterville bus route, allowing students to board the already extended LaSalette route set up earlier this school year, and creating a double loop route to service Norwich and Otterville — would run the board $65,760 per year based on current rates.
Accommodating these students in the school setting will also carry a price tag for the local board. Currently serving as a computer lab, a double classroom is being proposed to be split in order to provide two separate classroom spaces. A mobile computer lab would replace the current fixed lab. The cost of this mobile computer lab and renovations is projected to be $33,000.
Another proposed renovation would be relocating the Early Years Centre and Career Resource Centre, which currently occupy space in the high school, to create two additional classrooms. Renovation costs for this project would be "minimal," according to the report.
While the current number of Oxford applications would push the school population by 70 students over capacity, there is currently no waiting list to enrol in DDSS — as of yet.
"There definitely is the possibility of a waiting list, especially if there are applications that come in from this point forward," Mann added.
Barbara Simpson
519-426-3528, ext. 112
bsimpson@bowesnet.com
