Forest Glade parent protesting plan to move French immersion program

The mother of a French immersion student at Forest Glade Public School says she's frustrated by a decision of the Greater Essex County District School Board to move the school's French immersion students to Tecumseh Vista Public School at the start of the new school year in September.

Harmony Peach says she will speak out at the board's information meeting Wednesday night at the former Eastwood Public School.

"From a logistical standpoint, we will now have three children who will be attending three different schools, which will require three different arrivals and three different pickups," Peach said.

"Our youngest is going to face being trucked four times the distance away," as a result of the change, she said, and she's also worried about the psychological impact of the move. 

The school board sent a letter to parents on Friday, signed by Superintendent of Education Todd Awender, informing them of the change.

"It must be noted that this decision was necessary due to the declining French immersion enrolment at Forest Glade Public School," the letter read. 

Questions about enrolment numbers

But Peach said she's skeptical of the suggestion that numbers are down because her daughter, who is in junior kindergarten, has 24 children in her class.

She also questioned if the board was relying on numbers from the era of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders to inform its long-term planning.

The school board's superintendent of elementary staffing said COVID-19 did impact French immersion enrolment right across the province, but enrolment at Forest Glade has not trended up again since. 

In 2019, the school, which had been adding a French immersion option to one grade every year, had 149 students enrolled in the program ranging from junior kindergarten to Grade 3, Kari Bryant said.

This year, it has 151 French immersion students between junior kindergarten and Grade 8.

Peach's daughter's class is actually a combined junior and senior kindergarten class, Bryant said.

"We had hoped that all of our French immersion programs would be robust and viable, and that we wouldn't be at this point," Bryant said.

"But we're just not seeing parents make those choices."

School board decision based on data, superintendent says

Peach is also frustrated about how the information about the change was communicated to parents, she said.

"There's been no public consultation for it," she said. "There's been no public discussion …we received a letter home just this Friday rumpled at the bottom of my child's bag."

But Bryant said the decision is based on data, and the board has to act in ways that "prioritize program sustainability and student success."

"We really have to make those decisions and then work with families to listen to concerns and answer questions and support them through this transition," she said. 

The community meeting will allow the board to hear logistical concerns, such as Peach's about busing and conflicting pick-up times, and try to address them, she added.

Bryant says Forest Glade is one of two schools whose French immersion programs are moving due to low enrolment.

The program at Marlborough Public School is also moving to Bellewood Public School because enrolment at Marlborough has declined to the point where the board was forced to combine children in three grades into a single class.

"We had a Grade 2,3,4 and a Grade 5,4,7 this year," Bryant said.