New French public schools in small northern towns prompts calls for more school boards to break 'silos'

Two new French public elementary schools could put the squeeze on enrolment at the existing schools in two small northern Ontario towns.

The Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario plans to open new JK to Grade 6 schools in Noelville and Elliot Lake in the fall of 2019.

Director of education Marc Gauthier says they are looking at spending about a total of $1 million to renovate their existing secondary schools in each town and making space for between 30 and 50 elementary students.

He says they had requests from parents in Elliot Lake and the French River area who were forced to send their children to English or Catholic schools.

"It is our mandate to offer French public education and there wasn't that option," says Gauthier. 

He says his job is to provide that option to northern Ontario families, not to worry about the education system and its current four school boards.

"Well, that's a very touchy question and I will tell you that the best person to respond to that would be the government," says Gauthier.

Both French River and Elliot Lake have a dwindling number of children split between the existing schools.

The French Catholic elementary school in Noelville and the English public school in Monetville share 166 children, while the 848 elementary students in Elliot Lake are currently split between five schools—an English public, English public French immersion, English Catholic, English Catholic French immersion and French Catholic.

Conseil Scolaire Catholique du Nouvel-Ontario chair Andre Bidal says most Francophones choose his board's superior product, so he doesn't think the new schools will "have much impact,"

"I can't see why we wouldn't maintain again when the parents are happy with what they're getting," he says.

Rose Burton Spohn, education director at the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board, also isn't worried about losing kids from her board's two Elliot Lake schools. 

"Certainly anytime you offer a new option for families to consider it could have an impact," she says.

"But time will tell." 

Denny Sharp, a community activist and former town councillor in French River, wishes the boards would stop competing with each other.

"The school boards are all in their own silos," she says.

She has been pushing for an English high school in French River, but thinks all educational options could be offered if the boards work together.

"As our numbers go down, I think we'd be much more effective if we looked at these needs together," says Sharp.

"This is my community. And if we lose our kids and lose our families, then we lose our future."

Sharp believes the school boards will never come together on their own and hopes the province steps in to save education in small towns like hers. 

She is hosting a public meeting on the future of education in the French River area on Nov. 5 at the art gallery in Noelville, starting at 7 p.m.