French school likely to close

A meeting to discuss the closure of the local French school here last Wednesday night drew no one from the local community.
Classes have been suspended at the school since the 2004-05 school year when no children registered.
The Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales advertised the meeting in recent issues of the Times and the Daily Bulletin, inviting interested parents and caregivers to attend and express their opinions regarding the closure of the school.
The public meeting is part of the procedure a board must go through when considering permanently closing a school.
The short meeting—and ensuing interview—took place entirely in the first language of the board, French.
Though no one came out, the absence of parents speaks volumes, director of education Sylvianne Mauro noted.
When people don’t come out, that carries a message, board chair Angèle Brunelle agreed.
Both women, along with three other board staff, travelled from Thunder Bay for the meeting, which was held upstairs at La Place Rendez-Vous. Fort Frances trustee Mary Ellen Kennedy also was on hand.
The CSDC des Aurores boréales opened its school here in 1999 with 12 students in a single room at St. Francis School, offering JK-Grade 8.
By 2003-04, the last year students enrolled at the school, there were nine. None enrolled the following year.
The board opted to take a very conservative approach to the closure of the school, Mauro noted.
It discussed the possibility of closure last March, but agreed to allow it to continue one more year to see if parents and children would show an interest.
As there were no students enrolled again in September, the board decided to put the process in motion.
One of the steps is to invite the public to a meeting to see if there were any objections, Mauro explained. Parents also were invited to submit their comments in writing to the board, up until March 6.
The French board specializes in dealing with schools offering multiple grades in a single classroom, Mauro noted, adding the board’s experience in Fort Frances helped contribute to that expertise.
For example, the board no longer will open a new school without a minimum enrolment of 20 students, split into two classrooms, to ensure a better chance of long-term success.
Interestingly, the board opened a new school in Nakina around the same time as the one here. That school has now expanded to three classrooms.
A school needs the support of the community, Brunelle noted. It cannot be done alone.
Mauro stressed the board had the best interests of the school and its students at heart, but that the decision to register a child rests with the parents and the board must respect that decision.
In the next steps of the process, a special committee of the board will examine any written comments from parents while taking into account the financial viability of the school.
The committee will make a recommendation to the board, which then will pass a resolution on the issue. A final decision likely will be made in April, Mauro said.
The CSDC des Aurores boréales is a French First Language system, which is different from an English system that offers French Immersion.
In an immersion program, the purpose is to learn French as a second language. The purpose of a French-language board is to offer education in French to people of Francophone ancestry.
In order to be eligible to attend a French-language school, the student must have at least one parent whose first language learned—and still understood—is French, or at least one parent who received their primary school instruction in Canada in French.
A student also is eligible if they have a sibling who has attended a French-language school.
This is according to Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which constitutionally guarantees minority language education rights to French speakers outside of Quebec.
All subjects—including math, science, and geography—are taught in French. In Grade 4, students begin studying English.
The CSDC des Aurores boréales runs seven schools in Northwestern Ontario, including elementary schools in Thunder Bay, Marathon, Geraldton, Longlac, Terrace Bay, and a new high school in Thunder Bay.
The board is in the process of exploring the viability of opening a school in the Kenora area.