Don't camp out for French program spots school board tells parents

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

The Tri-County Regional School Board is telling parents seeking a spot for their children in a late French immersion program not to camp out on the lawn of Maple Grove as some families were planning to do beginning Tuesday evening, saying their presence would be disruptive to the hundreds of students attending the junior high during Wednesday’s school day.

Families seeking a spot at the front of the line to grab one of the 30 available spots in the program – for which 34 have applied – are instead being told not to show up until after the end of the school day on Wednesday.

In a media interview, the school board’s superintendent said if parents show up too early they may have to call in the RCMP to disperse them.

Some parents have been planning to resort to the lining-up-for-rock-concert-tickets scenario after receiving a letter from the board informing them that there isn’t enough space in a late French immersion program at Maple Grove to accommodate everyone who has applied for it. Instead, registration will be on a first-come, first-serve basis on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

Some parents aren’t impressed.

“They’re comparing our kids’ education to a rock concert where you have to go line up at the door and see which four kids are not going to get the education they wanted,” said parent Jennifer Cunningham, who feels all children should have the same fair and equal opportunity to access a program.

The school board says it is only following policy that says when demand exceeds the cap on student numbers they have to resort to registration being first-come, first-serve. The board notes this is the first time in years the numbers have put it in this position. There is still space at the program at Yarmouth Junior High if families were willing to apply for a transfer.

Speaking on a personal level, school board chair Faye Haley admits the first-come, first-serve option isn’t the ideal option, and she’s not happy that parents feel so desperate to get their children into a program that they feel their only option is to plunk a tent on a lawn and camp out.

“It is truly unfortunate and we would love to be able to meet everybody’s needs, but the funding is just not there to do it, so it has to be on that basis, first come, first serve,” she says.

Some parents have questioned if registration should instead be based on academics, particularly if some students don’t get into the program but then see others drop out a couple of months into it because they realize they’re not cut out for French immersion.

Haley says the board has never considered basing admission strictly on high grades.

“There’s already a perception out there that this is sort of an elitist program and that’s not what it is,” she says. “We’ve never even discussed doing that.”