Parents make plea to stop school swap
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2015 (3866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Passions are running high among parents at Earl Grey School who don’t want their kids moved or their school bartered for another.
Earl Grey may be at barely one-third of capacity in a large building, while École LaVérendrye and its nearby ultra-popular French milieu program is way beyond what its much-smaller building can handle.
But Earl Grey parents were clearly in the majority at the Winnipeg School Division special board meeting Monday night as a standing-room-only crowd spilling out into the hallway heard their delegations plead for their school to remain just as it is.
LaVérendrye has 360 students in a building that can fit 300 and the division projects continuing strong growth. Earl Grey has 225 students in nursery to Grade 8 in a school that can handle 600.
Parent Myra Tait told trustees Earl Grey has developed programs to help a high enrolment of indigenous kids cope and succeed in the face of racism. “It’s time we dealt with the R-word,” she said.
Tait and other parents described a school in which every adult is paired with an indigenous student, every junior high child mentors a younger child, and the daycare and community centre offer before-and-after-school care.
If overcrowding results in a straight swap, the grades 7 and 8 would be scattered among other schools. And if trustees opt in a crucial vote next month for more complex solutions, the shifts of kids, grades and programs could affect half a dozen south end schools significantly — especially if there is a second French milieu established to the west in River Heights.
Outnumbered in the room, LaVérendrye parents were equally passionate that their kids need space.
Stacey Huard said the school is well beyond capacity, even with the music and art rooms and library converted to classrooms. Only the gym and computer lab are available and the school continues to grow.
Parent Ratna Pandey said LaVérendrye is the only milieu school in WSD’s south end.
“Catchment is a huge issue for us. This has really divided the community. It really is creating a lot of tension,” Padney said.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca