School Boundaries

To view the school boundary interactive map, click here.

Boundary Guidelines

At the May 24, 2022 Regular Board Meeting, the RDCRS Board of Trustees approved new boundaries for RDCRS.

Option Six was approved subject to the following conditions;         

• That the Mackenzie Trails and Gaetz Lake Sanctuary areas be part of the Waskasoo Area and therefore part of the St. Thomas Aquinas Catchment Area;
• To direct Administration to investigate the feasibility and if deemed appropriate, move the area on the west side of Red Deer, south of Highway 11 and north of the Red Deer River, to become part of the St. Lorenzo Ruiz and St. Joseph High School catchment areas;   
• And that the recommendations of changes within the transportation processes as presented in the May 24, 2022 Boundary Development Report be accepted and to commence at the start of the 2023-2024 school year. 

As RDCRS continues to prepare for the opening of St. Lorenzo Ruiz Middle School, middle school boundaries reconfiguration needed to be examined to ensure all schools within the Division are operating at a viable capacity with roughly the same utilization rate. The RDCRS Boundary Development Team developed and evaluated multiple scenarios, collected feedback from stakeholders, trustees and school-based administrators, and presented six viable options to RDCRS’ Board of Trustees since January. 

In addition to the guiding principles, RDCRS’ administration considered the existing programs offered in each school, as well as the neighborhood’s proximity to existing schools. The administration also took this opportunity to make minor adjustments to some elementary school boundaries to increase utilization rates and make the transition to middle school smoother.

The Boundary Development process also provided us with an opportunity to identify ways to improve the  overall student transportation system at RDCRS. 

Transportation Changes - Implemented August 2023

Through the RDCRS Boundary Development process, it became apparent that we must review our Transportation plan in our Division. RDCRS remains committed to providing a quality service for our families, however, to ensure ride times remain reasonable as our Division grows, the following needs to be reviewed and adjusted. These changes will be implemented in August 2023 in order to provide families with time to make adjustments. 

Transportation:  

At the March Regular Board Meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the recommendation of changes within the transportation processes: 

• Students eligible for busing, if necessary, will receive up to two bus stops to accommodate up to two addresses.
• Should the student's second bus stop be located on the same route as the student's primary address's bus stop, no additional transportation fees would apply.
• If a student's second bus stop requires the use of a second bus route, within the school catchment, a fee of $150 will apply to offset the seat being occupied on a second bus route.
• If a student's second bus route is outside the school catchment there will be no busing provided.

Grandfathering

1. It should be noted that any grandfathering will result in an increased cost for the Division, for example, transportation in the first year of grandfathering, staffing, and resource allocation. 
2. Any students entering Grade 6 or Grade 10 will be required to attend their catchment school.
3. Students in Grades 7, 8, 9 and Grade 11 or 12 can choose to remain at their current school if they fall out of catchment at the start of the 2023-2024 school year. Transportation will be provided for one year only. Following that year, transportation will be at the parents' expense and organization, for example, The City of Red Deer Transit system. Please note, that Division transportation eligibility and associated transportation fees may change for your family based on the Division’s new boundaries. If your residence is located more than 2.4 km from your catchment school, no fees apply. If your residence is located less than 2.4 km from your catchment school, the current fee of $300 (subject to change) will apply. Red Deer Catholic Busing will not be available to transport your child after the grandfathering year. If you are unsure of what school is your child's catchment school, please access the boundary information on our Division website at www.rdcrs.ca.

Please note, that the exception for grandfathering and transportation would be any students who are part of a congregated program, for example, the Blended Program at St. Francis of Assisi Middle School.

Implementation of the new school boundaries will take effect in September 2023. 

We are grateful to all of our stakeholders who have been on this journey with us and who have provided their input, suggestions and ideas. Your feedback helped us shape our boundary decision and we appreciate the time and effort that went into providing this information, and look forward to continued collaboration in the future. 

God bless,

Kathleen Finnigan
Superintendent of Schools

May 18, 2022

Dear Parents, Caregivers, and Stakeholders

The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools Board of Trustees and Senior Administration Team would like to thank our parents and stakeholders for their engagement in our boundary development process. We recognize that changes like these are not easy and sincerely appreciate the many ideas and solutions that were presented as part of the process. We have continued to evolve our boundary options based on ideas from stakeholders while ensuring sustained growth and maximized utilization in our school communities.

Many of these ideas resulted in new options and adjustments to others. Based on your feedback, we feel we have narrowed our vision to a system of school boundaries that will alleviate pressure in some of our schools where capacity is high while still maintaining the guiding principles for our boundary development process which were to: 

• Minimize splitting elementary students to more than 2 middle schools when they transition to Grade 6; try to achieve a 50% split if possible.
• Avoid leapfrogging subdivisions.
• Allow schools to continue to see growth.
• Minimize consecutive years when students need to change schools 

As a result of discussion and feedback, six options are now available for viewing on our Division website https://www.rdcrs.ca/ as well as on school websites. These are modified versions of the original three options presented to parents based on recommendations from stakeholders via public meetings, letters, emails, and a Division-wide survey. 

The boundary decision item will be on the next Board meeting agenda. A final decision will be made by the Board no later than the June Board meeting. Please note that the new boundary and transportation changes will go into effect at the start of the 2023-2024 school year which begins in August 2023.

We thank you for your consultation during this process and look forward to continued collaboration in the future. 

God bless,

Kathleen Finnigan

Superintendent of Schools

Previous Boundary Development Stakeholder Engagement Sessions:

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 - 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at St. Joseph High School 

Boundary Development Presentation PDF

Click here for the full presentation.

February 8th & 10th Virtual Stakeholder Engagement Session Recording