Dear Trustee Kathryn Cooper, You are where you are today because of people like me. I listened carefully to what you had to say in the last election and decided to choose you to represent my family. I supported you. You won. I do not feel that you are listening carefully to what I or the many other families are saying to you now. Our children are losing. Here is what your non-support means to my family. I am a single mother of four young children, in grades 1 through 8. I am a French Immersion teacher who believes passionately in second language learning in general and French in particular as their father’s parents were francophone. My children are all thriving academically, socially and emotionally, with the youngest three in French Immersion at Edward Johnson. I am sad and angry that they will have to be taken away from everything familiar and steady in their school lives. In 2014, I will have four children in three different schools in two different “cities” at least 45 minutes apart, not accounting for “rush-hour” traffic delays or weather. It will be an impossibility for me to pick up all of my children when necessary for after school activities and appointments exclusively based in Guelph and Fergus. I do not have a network of family or friends in the Brisbane and Erin area. I have no ties to the area at all. Since 2003, I have been able to volunteer so much of my time and energy to the Edward Johnson community because it is a convenient part of the larger Guelph/Eramosa community in which I live. I will not be able to do this for Brisbane or Erin. I am NOT someone who complains and whines about life in general. I’m not a “privileged”, militant, over-protective parent. I am quite level-headed and usually accept what life throws at me with the attitude that it could be worse. But we are talking about my kids. I am profoundly grateful for what my children and I have. However, I feel that it is monumentally unfair to strip that away from them. And if they are facing attending French Immersion at Brisbane in 2014, that is precisely what will occur. During the meeting on Jan 24, I sensed that Trustees finally recognized that this solution is not practical or sensible for our families. Yet you STILL voted to pass it! Most importantly, it will be detrimental to our children – academically, socially and emotionally, as they experience the stress and anxiety associated with being selectively discarded from their current FI placement, only to be moved again and yet again in 2014 and beyond. Can the Trustees prove beyond a shred of doubt that these moves will not affect my children academically, emotionally and socially? NO. Can the Trustees prove that these moves will only benefit and enrich my children’s education? NO. Children aren’t inanimate desks or computers to be packed up and shuffled from school to school where needed to prop up insufficient numbers. I am positive that there is not one Trustee in any school board who would wish a shambling mess like this on his or her own children. I am grateful to the Board for seeing the wisdom of allowing our children two years at King George in Guelph. But I will not be sending them to Brisbane at that point while the Board supposedly determines if French Immersion in Rockwood is feasible. It will NOT be feasible because potential new enrollments will be denied entrance to King George and will decline French Immersion at Brisbane. The opportunity to boost numbers and interest in a Rockwood French Immersion program during that time will be squandered. Parents understand that so clearly. Why can’t you? When you ran for Trustee, if you had promised to parents that you would do everything in your power to ensure that French Immersion would become completely inaccessible to each and every student in Guelph/Eramosa by 2014, where do you think you would you be now? I hope that you will continue to work with us to help everyone find a better solution. I am hoping also that you can restore my faith in you as the person I supported to represent my children, on whose behalf I am writing this letter. Sincerely, Adrienne Miller
Adrienne Miller