Senior administration is recommending the Northwest Catholic District School Board discontinue its French Immersion program at both St. Michael’s and St. Francis schools on a year-by-year basis due to low enrolment.
There currently are 15 students enrolled in French senior kindergarten at St. Michael’s for the 2005/06 school year. The board requires a minimum enrolment of 20 to run the class.
Last year, the board agreed to run the program for one more year despite an enrolment of just 19 students.
A high attrition rate is the main reason the board has set the minimum enrolment at 20.
For example, the 1998/99 French senior kindergarten class began with 26 students. But the time the class started Grade 3 in 2001/02, there only were 14 students left—almost half the original class size.
The FSK class that began with 19 students in 2001/02 now, in Grade 3, has only 15 students left.
In a report to be presented to the board at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday night, Superintendent of Education Al Cesiunas and Director of Education Laurie Bizero recommend the board discontinue the FSK class and continue to phase out the French Immersion program on a year-by-year basis until 2013 when the last French Grade 8 class graduates.
While the local Catholic board is committed to providing French Immersion through to Grade 8 for those already in the program, a shortage of qualified teachers in Ontario also has been a problem.
“It must be noted that in the event that there is a lack of French Immersion teachers between the 2005 and 2013 school years, the board would not be in a position to continue to offer the program for that particular year(s),” the report reads.
As an English-language system, the local Catholic board is not required to offer French Immersion programming. The Ministry of Education only requires English-language school boards to provide Core French in Grades 4-8.
The board meets this requirement, and also provides Core French in Grades 1-3, for which it receives no additional funding.
Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, the board will:
•hear a presentation from Marie Brady, president of the local chapter of Canadian Parents for French, regarding the French Immersion program;
•vote on a modified school year calendar for 2005/06; and
•review the board’s EQAO action plan for 2004/05.
The meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. in the board office next to St. Francis School.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
