Parents will be asked for their views on plans to shake up the school catchment area in Aberdeenshire this week.
A public meeting on the rezoning of Portlethen and the surrounding area will be held tomorrow, and parents and other members of the community are being urged to go along and have their say.
The rezoning exercise is being carried out after the long-awaited Hillside Primary was given the green light by councillors in 2013.
The £12.9million new build will ease pressure on the over-capacity Portlethen Primary, and will meet residents’ repeated calls for more facilities in the Hillside area, where hundreds of homes are being built.
But in order to deliver the 355-pupil school, Aberdeenshire Council needs to create a new catchment area and will look at where pupils from Banchory-Devenick, Portlethen, Fishermoss and Newtonhill primaries currently come from.
The shake-up will only have an impact on new pupils, and will be rolled out next August.
Last night North Kincardine councillor Alastair Bews urged people to attend tomorrow’s public meeting, which will run from 6pm-8pm in the drama studio at Portlethen Academy.
He said: “It’s a formal meeting and I would encourage as many people to go along as possible. This is really important.
“The other thing we have to keep an eye on is that the new school opens in 2016, we can’t afford to have any time slippage, as Portlethen Primary School is already bursting at the seams.
“Most of the constituents I have spoken to have accepted that rezoning is going to be needed. I think they’ve been reassured though that if one of their children is already at, for example, Portlethen Primary, their brother or sister would still be allowed to join them there – they won’t be separated. That’s the main thing people have been worried about.”
Feedback from the consultation will be considered by members of the Kincardine and Mearns area committee, before before referred to the education, learning and leisure committee for final approval.
An online survey with copies of maps including the proposed boundary changes is also available by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/s/PortlethenRezoningConsultation
The deadline for comments is Friday, February 27.