Dozens of families in Montreal West are upset after learning that children have been turned away from the school closest to their home, and more kindergarten students will likely be turned away again next year.

Edinburgh Elementary School in Montreal West is overcrowded and only has room for 12 new kindergarten students in 2019.

Because the school is so popular, and has so many students, Melissa Mennillo is concerned there will not be room for her son.

"If I have to send my little five year old on a bus to Willingdon when I bought a house two blocks from Edinburgh I would be crushed, crushed," said Mennillo.

"It's the school that I actually went to as a child and it has the greatest reputation."

Family members can attend

It's a big difference from five years ago when the school was underpopulated, but all those empty seats in the school at that time prompted the English Montreal School Board to open up the school to students from outside its official zone of Montreal West, NDG, and Cote St. Luc.

"The policy of the board is that if you live outside the zone you can attend that school provided there is space," said school commissioner Joseph Lalla.

That policy was successful in attracting students to Edinburgh, and the school is now working at 30 percent over its capacity.

"Oven the past two years at Edinburgh no one has been accepted from outside the zone because the school is full," said Lalla.

Siblings are the exception, since the school board does not split up families.

The EMSB is now examining what it can do, especially as Westmount Park Elementary is closing for two years for renovations.

"One of the recommendations is to open a new school in one of our buildings, St. Ignatius of Loyola and to start a new program there what we call the Francais Plus program," said Lalla.

Another possibility is to open an annex for younger children at another nearby location.

The board is also reopening a nearby school, St. John Bosco in Ville Emard, to house students displaced by the temporary closure of Westmount Park Elementary.