HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-12-22, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2011. PAGE 13. French immersion won’t expand to new schools
An auditory experience
No, they aren’t plugging their ears, the students of Brussels Public School were singing and
smiling all night long on Dec. 14 as part of their Christmas concert. Shown are Lucas Jacklin,
Owen Newell, Lola Johnston and Kierstyn Proctor taking centre stage. (Denny Scott photo)
Discussions brewing in Stratford
over French Immersion (FI)
programming will stay there, Avon
Maitland District School Board
(AMDSB) trustees heard Dec. 13.
AMDSB staff presented trustees
with a general report on the board’s
FI program at the December board
meeting. Currently, the program is
offered from Grades One to Six at
Bedford Public School and Grades
Seven to 12 at Stratford Central
public and secondary schools.
Overcrowding at Bedford Public
School, which houses FI students
and English track students, has led to
an accommodation review and
heated discussion over whether the
FI program should be added to
another Stratford school.
Northeast Huron trustee ColleenSchenk asked if the AMDSB shouldre-consider expanding the program
across the board’s schools, given the
two new schools scheduled for the
North Huron and North Perth areas.
But director of education Ted
Doherty said AMDSB staff would
likely recommend against such a
move, explaining that the result
would probably be a
“cannibalization” of rural schools
already struggling with dwindling
enrollment.
Doherty said the board’s original
belief when it launched the FI
program in 2000 was that it would
attract students from private schools
and other school boards in the area,
leading to increased revenue for the
AMDSB to help fund the FI
program.
Instead, the program has
overwhelmingly attracted studentsfrom other AMDSB schools,Doherty said. “We worry, as staff,
the impact of starting a program that
would perhaps deplete students from
other of our smaller, rural schools,”
he said.
Superintendent of business and
treasurer Janet Baird-Jackson
agreed.
“The notion of cannibalizing
existing students plays out in French
Immersion,” she said, explaining
that the incremental funding
increases for students taking French
Immersion don’t cover the costs of
setting up, staffing and maintaining
an FI program. Resources required
for the program include French
language texts, reference materials
and library resources, which are
more expensive, the board heard.
The three major costs of the program
are program materials, staffing andtransportation. Baird-Jacksonechoed Doherty’s statement that the
hope of gaining students from other
boards, along their additional
provincial funding, didn’t pan out.
“We’re back to seeing that we’re
just going to shuffle our own and add
cost that we can’t cover,” she said.
The last investigation intoexpanding the program came in2005, when a review gauged the
interest of parents across the
AMDSB area. Public meetingswere
held in Listowel, Wingham, Exeter,
Clinton and Goderich. The number
of December 2005 registrations was
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Best Wishes for a Happy 2012.
By Rita MarshallSpecial to The Citizen
Continued on page 30
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