New school only solution for overcrowding

Viviane Croubalian, assist director general for the board said in an interview Thursday that all Pearson schools in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region are at or over capacity, while bussing students to other schools is not a viable solution.

‘That’s not even an option anymore,” Croubalian said. “It’s come to the point that if (students) want an English education - and we need to provide it - we need a new school.”

The board is currently in talks with officials from Vaudreuil-Dorion, St Lazare and Les Cèdres in a bid to find suitable land on which to build a new school.

Any land offered by a town must be given to the board free of charge.

While enrollment numbers in the rest of the board’s territory, spanning from Verdun to the Ontario border, are declining, off-island numbers are growing with Vaudreuil-Dorion and St. Lazare leading the pack.

“Those areas are absolutely booming,” Croubalian says, adding, “Everyday we’re seeing our numbers grow.”

Schools in Ile Perrot and Pincourt are also steadily filling, she added.

The board has filed a dossier with the ministry of Education, Sports and Leisure requesting a new school.

The Ministry works on three year education plans, says Croubalian, and the Pearson board hopes to have an answer – and a positive announcement – by 2010.

For now, local schools will have to make do until more permanents solution can be found. Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Vaudreuil-Dorion is over capacity by close to 55 students.

The school opened 2001 with 343 students and now has 464.

The board is considering housing kindergarten or grade 6 students in another location next year.

Meanwhile, Westwood Jr High School in St Lazare recently underwent an enlargement even though it is relatively new, while Westwood Sr, in Hudson, will also soon be enlarged.

The board has gone to tender on the project and most work is expected to be completed at Westwood Sr by September 2009.

Croubalian said if the board could shift its underused buildings to the off-island area, their problems would be solved.

“But we just can’t do that. No one anticipated how quickly it would grow off-island, we never anticipated this.”