Overcrowding meeting crowded with emotion

The sometimes emotive gathering of close to 75 saw parents continuously lined up in order to voice opinions and comments to Lester B. Pearson board representatives including Director General Bob Mills, Assist Director General Viviane Croubalian, Ward 20 commissioner Angela Nolet, school Principal Jan Langelier, and others.

PET governing board chairman Roch Gamache moderated the evening.

Gamache said the governing board would like to see officials explore all options – including applying Pearson’s enrollment criteria in order to help redirect incoming students to other schools - before deciding to move any PET children.

Board numbers indicate that the school will be over capacity by at least 19 students next September, and quite a bit more in successive years.

Mills said the board has requested permission from Vaudreuil-Dorion to continue using portables installed in 2002, until July 2011.

Board officials recently submitted three proposals to PET that would include transferring one or two Grade 6 PET classes for one year to Westwood Jr. High School, or Forest Hill Sr. Elementary in St. Lazare, or Mount Pleasant Elementary in Hudson.

Along with Forest Hill senior and junior schools, PET offers an early French immersion program that has been a big enrollment draw for parents and could explain why both schools are always full.

Many who spoke at the meeting brought up five new kindergarten classes of students expected to start at PET in the coming school year.

“It really is not fair to send our kids out of the school to make room for new kids,” said one mother.

“I have a solution,” said parent France Dubois. “There are 125 open spaces at Mount Pleasant (elementary in Hudson.) Add a French immersion program to that school and send the kindergarten kids zoned for that school to Mount Pleasant. You can do this. You have to do this,” she stated to audience applause.

Mills responded: “Its not parents from this school that make decisions for another school. Mount Pleasant has to request a program change” before we could do that.

Mount Pleasant offers a fifty-fifty French/English language program.

Still others strongly supported keeping all PET students together next year, despite overcrowding.

The suggestion had also been made by the school’s governing board, in addition to urging the Pearson board to vigorously request a new off-island school from the province.

PET Principal Jan Langelier said it would be physically possible to keep all of the students together next year, though the school would be packed beyond capacity and extras such as resource rooms would be have to used as small classrooms.

Lynn Thompson, a founding PET teacher, expressed what she called an unpopular opinion when saying that she and other teachers did not support housing all students at the school next year.

“We felt quite strongly as a staff that putting that number of children in a school will have a negative impact,” she said.

“We don’t want to see any of the kids leave but the decision we see as best is not to put everybody in the building.”

Pearson board officals say they will make a final decision by the end of the month.