Parents upset with overcrowding solution in Louis Riel division

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This article was published 08/01/2014 (4288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 300 parents crowded into a school board meeting to hear that hundreds of their children will have go to a new school next September to ease overcrowding.

They didn’t protest. But there was a sense of resignation, one observer said. “The decision’s made. So what’s the point?” she shrugged.

Parents lined up before a microphone at the Louis Riel School Division Tuesday evening and told the board and superintendent Duane Brothers the move will turn their lives upside-down. They bought homes in St. Vital near schools they wanted their kids to attend.

Next September, George McDowell School will be configured as a grades 6 to 8 French-immersion school and École St. Germain and École Julie-Riel will be turned into K to Grade 5 French immersion schools.

Children in the latter two schools, which are almost overcrowded, will be shifted to George McDowell.

It will be hard, said single mom Jennifer Johnson. She said her two children, a girl, 12 and a boy, 10, will have to attend McDowell. They currently attend Julie-Riel. George McDowell is two Transit bus rides away.

“I’m disappointed. It’s going to be a big deal for our family. That’s why we bought our home in the location where we are,” she said.

A five-minute walk to school this year will become a $1,200 burden in bus tickets for the two kids next year, she said.

The process was exhausting, she said, adding she plans to lobby the school board for the cost of bus tickets.

School trustees delivered speeches after the move was announced, saying it was one of the toughest decisions they’ve made.

“I wanted a solution that would sustain both the French-immersion and English programs so we didn’t have to go through this again in a couple of years,” said trustee Sandy Nemeth, her voice trembling.

“It’s been an emotional time. We’ve all invested hundreds of hours in consultation, forums and debate. I’m satisfied this motion is the right one.”

The division has struggled for years with problems similar to those in Pembina Trails S.D. — hundreds of empty desks in some older neighbourhoods, but school fields covered with portables in some newer suburban neighbourhoods.

There are popular programs parents covet for their kids, pockets of high demand, and pockets of empty classrooms, but students are often separated by kilometres from schools that have space.

The French-immersion programs at École Julie-Riel and École St. Germain are way beyond the schools’ capacities, and the schools project an additional 74 kids next September.

Brothers had said the division did not have a favourite solution going into extensive community consultation. Many of the solutions would involve an English-track school, currently well-below capacity, becoming a French-immersion school next fall. That would involve English-track students moving schools, some of them likely having to take the bus.

In the mix for possible changes were Dr. D.W.L. Penner, George McDowell, H.S. Paul, Highbury, Samuel Burland, and Victor H.L. Wyatt schools.

 

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca