At the board meeting last night, following three hours of debate, Halton DSB trustees voted unanimously to resolve Ward 4 accommodation challenges of overcrowding at Ecole Forest Trail and underenrolment south of Upper Middle Road with a plan that includes building a dual track French immersion centre in Palermo. To summarize the resolution (see details below), this new school will open in September 2010 for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 7 English program students living in the Bronte Creek community currently held at other schools in Northwest Oakville, and for Grades 1 to 4 students from the new school’s French Immersion catchment. This school will pilot the introduction of Core French in Grade 1. French Immersion students and staff will begin building the school this fall at an “incubator” located at Lorne Skuce PS in Oakville Ward 6. Following is Kathryn’s recommendation as presented and ultimately approved.
Thank you to community members, staff and trustees. This has been an exceptionally long and involved process that has allowed us to learn and receive much information and experience. Out of this process, I believe children across the entire Halton District School Board will benefit.
Tonight we are here to make the best decision for kids, for the staff teaching our students and for the families involved.
We know Halton District School Board staff can create environments in many different settings where children want to learn, achieve and experience success.
There is not one perfect solution for this area, but there are many that will work, and work well.
We have before us the recommendation put forward by the Director whereby Oakville Ward 4 will see two models of FI delivered in three schools — 2 dual tracks and 1 single track.
Initially, we heard approximately 30 delegations and received several letters. All but a very few, I believe it was 3, were not in support of this recommendation.
As requested by members of this community, I brought forth a draft alternative motion, one that provided this area with a solution very different than that presented by the Director.
This week, we heard almost 40 people speak to a solution that would see this area with two single-track FI centers and six single-track English schools. The response from community members to this solution as presented, was mixed. There was both ample support and ample dissatisfaction.
Of interest in this last round of delegations was the newly-found support for the Director’s recommendation and not surprisingly the overwhelming reaction of “please do not relocate my child, my family”.
We know once a family has joined a school community, they do not want to leave. This is a direct result of the job well-done within each school. It is the result of people working hard to make sure families are connected to their school community and ensuring they feel a strong sense of belonging.
We know it is this sense of belonging and connectedness that promotes a healthy learning environment and healthy character development, something the Ministry of Education and all child advocates throughout the world understand to be important to the success of youth today.
We have undergone an extensive community consultation process, debated and discussed the intricacies of FSL teaching and learning, transportation, costs, fiscal responsibility, culture, climate and belonging associated with a school, research, and still many of us are grappling with the decision before us tonight.
Thank you again everyone for your patience and for the attention paid to enable a good decision for these students, these families and the education system in Halton.
Tonight I have created a series of resolutions for your consideration. It is my absolute best attempt at representing what we have learned about educating students, about what the system requires to run at an optimal level, to respect the work of staff and the differing opinions of community members. It is an attempt at balancing the forces and making a sound decision that is EDUCATIONALLY SOUND and FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE.
Please indulge me as I review what we have done and some of what we have learned.
We resolved to do a boundary study to review the program and accommodation needs in Oakville Ward 4 because there is growth and overcrowding in the schools north of Upper Middle Road, and declining enrolment in schools south of Upper Middle Road.
These issues became more challenging and less obvious when the primary class size caps were implemented and the Ministry began discussing all-day/every-day kindergarten. Nevertheless the issues remain the same in this ward. We are now challenged with a recession. We honestly do not know what homes will be built, when they might be built and who might live in them. We are always challenged with the choices parents make for their children, all of this creates more uncertainty.
Initially, when all this began, we had a few meetings with some staff members and council chairs. It was decided then that a community consultation process would be conducted and it would be facilitated and assisted by outside agencies.
An overview and highlights of the focus group and survey results are as follows:
- create a plan that is sustainable in the long term for our families
- minimize the movement of students as many have experience multiple moves
- maximize the use of existing facilities and resources and
- ensure there are viable numbers of students to allow for quality programming
These messages appear clear and easy to resolve but they are not as easy to implement as they seem.
During this and the other accommodation studies, we have come to understand the optimal size of school is 450 to 600. We have come to understand that two classes per grade is healthy for class building, social issues and different styles of learning.
We also know it will be impossible to satisfy everyone. What we must do is make the best decision we can for the students, the families, the staff and the system.
Director Joudrie has referred to various solutions as “hybrid” and so I too would like to refer to the hybrid.
Again, I repeat, this is my best attempt at representing the opinions of the community members, the students and the staff. Leaving here tonight we will have a resolution that we the adults can all live with and more importantly a solution that will allow every child to thrive.
If I may Chair Jones, I would like to read through what the trustees have before them so the members of the public have an entire picture.
The first resolution addresses the overcrowding in the north, the under-enrolment in the south and a proactive approach to changing boundaries that will not affect students already enrolled in schools. It assists in the utilization of facilities and resources and enables students to remain in the schools that they begin their career in. I have always been opposed to re-location of students. It is especially difficult for families to change schools and can have a temporary yet negative impact on the ability to learn as suggested in Director Joudrie’s report.
The second resolution is what I refer to the “hybrid”. It is not the single track French Immersion model that I indicated and drafted last meeting. It is the “compromise”, if you will. I believe in the merits of a single-track model of French Immersion education when it can be done. I note the research department referred to the significant differences in attrition favoring the single-track model and the significant difference in the belonging domain favoring the single-track model. While caution was placed on both of these pieces of data, I believe the result of a homogeneous group of people focused and working together on one common goal is of benefit. And for further clarification I try to explain to those who will listen that when we want to help our children become better at a sport or an art, we send them to a place where they can specialize; we send them to ballet, not a school for dance, or we sent them to baseball camp, not an all-sports camp.
The third resolution refers to a solution for 2009 and onward. It moves students to a vacant property in NE Oakville where we can begin to establish the FI environment and develop the relationships children depend on. The English track students were not included in this simply because they are fine in the schools they are attending right now and an unnecessary move for them does not make sense.
The fourth motion talks to the grandfathering at Forest Trail as has been consistent with the Director’s proposal, and it speaks to the well-being of the children that just relocated from Pine Grove to Forest Trail.
The fifth resolution is included because the intent for all students dealing with change is to provide as much continuity and familiarity as possible; to minimize the disruption and keep them as happy and comfortable as possible. Research speaks directly to the difficulties children deal with when they change schools, especially during the pre-adolescent years.
Finally the sixth resolution is an attempt to make this new school in Palermo as comfortable and familiar to those students that will be attending. It is an attempt to create a fully bilingual environment and to encourage second language learning at an early age for all students.
Regardless of the outcome of tonight I know all of the children will be provided with a school environment in which they will learn and grow and this will be done because all of us together have one main goal…..that is to see our children be the very best that they can be.
- Be it resolved that the Halton District School Board authorize staff to utilize space south of Upper Middle Road for students of subdivisions not yet constructed in order to address overcrowding and under enrolment in Oakville Ward 4.
- Be it resolved that in September 2010, the Halton District School Board open a new school in Palermo to be culturally bilingual, dual track, and resourced accordingly.
- Be it resolved that the Halton District School Board direct French Immersion students Grades 1-3, destined to attend Palermo in 2010, to attend the vacant Lorne Skuce Public School as an incubator school as of September 2009; this is to address the overcrowding at Ecole Forest Trail Public School and to establish a permanent French Immersion cohort for students until graduation.
AND
- THAT those students with older siblings who continue at Ecole Forest Trail Public School be grandfathered until such time that the older sibling graduates.
AND
- THAT in order to maintain continuity of the incubated setting; the Principal of the Palermo school be appointed in September 2009 and assigned to Lorne Skuce Public School, and that Admin endeavour to recommend a Principal experienced with the French Immersion track and a Vice Principal experienced with the English track.
- Be it resolved that Core French Programming in the new Palermo school begin in Grade 1 as a pilot, to assist in the development of a culturally bilingual environment and in order to benefit the English track students.
