By Walter Byj
September 23, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton school board is facing a conundrum and it needs your help.
At the September 16th meeting of the HDSB, Associate Director Stuart Miller, on behalf of the Program Viability Committee, issued the report outlying both the process and timeline that the committee will follow in consulting the public about both English and French programming.
The French Immersion program is very popular and has a huge uptake in Halton schools. Schools within Halton that are dual tracked, having both English and French Immersion (FI) from grades one to eight, are facing an imbalance in class sizes. With high enrolment in FI, 19 schools face limited enrolment in the English program.
A possible result is split classrooms for the English program. The committee was formed to formulate a plan that would continue to offer quality programs for both English and FI.
Miller’s report recommended that the time frame for implementation be September 2017 and that extensive consultation from the community be taken prior to any action steps.
A tentative communication plan, starting October 17th was presented to the trustees. The plan includes both information nights for the public along with focus groups. The dates will be published once confirmed. In preparation for these meetings, Miller set out the information that would be available to the public.
• Number of single track schools
• Number of dual track schools
• Pupil place capacity of the schools (OTG)
• Number of schools with core French
• Historical and projected enrolment growth(both English and French Immersion)
• Uptake of French Immersion
• Projections of FI uptake
• Class sizes in both English and French(samples)
• Recruitment of French Immersion teachers
• Attrition rate of students choosing FI(Grade 2-12)
• Comments on subject specialists in secondary schools
• Enrolment projections at FI secondary schools
Miller felt that the time line put in place (Process of public consultation begins Oct 2015 with implementation September 2017) along with the information the Board can share the community would have its voice heard. The recent Pineland public school turmoil was on the minds of trustees who followed up with questions and suggestions of their own.
Tracey Ehl Harrison(Oakville) asked if there should be a student voice in the consultations along with school councils. Use of facebook and twitter should also be used. Responding to her question as to the philosophy of the consultations, Miller responded that it was similar to boundary change hearings and that those have been effective. While a large cross section of the community is ideal, we need to be cautious as to the time constraints that they are facing with such a major endeavour. There will be a large spread consultation process. He stressed that the process is about how to deliver FI, not about the curriculum.
Joanna Oliver(Oakville) asked if transportation costs would be part of the process. Miller responded that it would be difficult to breakout this information as buses are shared for many different students.
When asked what the core goal of this consultation process was, Miller stated that it was to deliver viable programs for both English and French Immersion. Harvey Hope (Oakville) asked if fluency in French can be delivered in a different way. Miller later said there is no test for language proficiency and there is no way to say the current program will make bilingual people.
The final word came from Director Euale who stated that after all the consultation; there could be no action at all.
Other than the comment: “I like the process” from second term trustee Amy Collard, Burlington’s other three trustees didn’t have a word to say. Unfortunate!
Walter Byj has been the Gazette reporter on education for more than a year. He is a long time resident of the city and as a parent has in the past delegated to the school board.
