The Northern Lights Public School division says a conversation is coming up to do with the future of public schooling in Cold Lake. On November 9th the Cold Lake Configuration Committee will be hosting two online consultation sessions where they will present three options for the configuration of Cold Lake’s public schools and seek input from parents and the public about which option best meets the needs of the community.
The consultation sessions will be presented using Zoom. One will take place at 11 a.m. and the other will take place at 7 p.m. To ensure all participants have ample opportunity to contribute, the school board says they are capping participation in each session at 30 people. Additional sessions may be added if the interest in participating exceeds the session caps.
Parents can register by completing the Cold Lake Configuration Consultation Registration Form prior to noon on November 6th. The board says it will confirm session registration by sending participants a Zoom link for their session before November 8th. To fully participate in the consultation session each participant is urged to have their own device (computer, laptop, tablet or phone) with a microphone and camera.
The consultation sessions are the next step in the configuration process for Cold Lake public schools. The process began in June 2019 with parent and staff information sessions. At that time, NLPS identified that based on enrollment projections and the current configuration and capacity of its Cold Lake schools, several schools would be at or over capacity within 2-3 years.
In November 2019, the Cold Lake Configuration Committee was formed. The board says it is made up of parents from each of the schools in Cold Lake, as well as school administrators and division office representatives. After examining data and discussing many factors related to configuration, in March the committee identified three potential options for configuring the schools in Cold Lake. The committee was planning to hold staff and community consultations, but that was postponed when schools were closed last spring due to COVID-19.
For more background on configuration and the work the committee has done so far, parents can check out the Cold Lake Configuration page on the NLPS website.
