Wellington North council has passed a motion of support for the parent group fighting the Upper Grand District School Board’s (UGDSB) French review.
Chris Pipe, representing the Palmerston Public School Parent Council, presented to council the changes the review would bring to the township.
Currently all Wellington North students travel to Palmerston Public School for elementary French immersion, explained Pipe.
“On average over the past five years, junior kindergarten enrollment in the French immersion program at Palmerston Public has averaged 25 to 35 students per year with equal representation of students from [Minto, Mapleton and Wellington North],” he said.
The UGDSB is currently reviewing the French immersion program and has presented 19 recommendations to the board. Three of these recommendations are being questioned by the parent council.
“Three contentious recommendations that were tabled and delayed until May … if passed, in our opinion, would drastically change the French immersion program delivery and seriously damage the appeal for Wellington North for young families seeking French immersion education for their children,” said Pipe.
The recommendations are:
– using junior kindergarten as the only entry point for French immersion);
– reducing French instruction time by 20 per cent, and further to 50% if recruitment of French teachers is unsuccessful); and
– a cap on enrolment.
“The board has suggested that Palmerston Public be allotted 25 spaces for JK enrolment beginning in 2017, even though the current enrolment for this year is 37 students,” said Pipe.
“This is the lowest enrolment cap in the entire board.”
Carolyn Paquette, owner of Cover Ups in Arthur and Fergus, also spoke to council.
She said access to French immersion was key consideration when she and her family moved to the area a number of years ago.
“We would not have moved here (without it)… it’s that simple. We would not have bought a business here,” said Paquette. “For communities of the north to continue to grow and attract young families … schools and school programs are paramount and they should be top of mind.”
Councillors expressed their support for the delegates’ request. However, councillor Dan Yake asked if they were leaving it too late, as the board is expected to vote in May.
“We didn’t want to come to the board with ‘here’s what’s wrong with the report,’ we wanted to come to the board with a number of recommendations that we think that we can implement to fix the problem,” said Pipe.
“They know they have a problem, we wanted to bring solutions.”
Mayor Andy Lennox added he supported the motion but didn’t want “to be seen digging into the board’s business; that’s one of my concerns but certainly I think this is an important issue.”
Council unanimously passed a resolution requesting the UGDSB to explore solutions other than capping and reducing the French immersion program.
