LBPSB pressures bilingual program Mount Pleasant has enjoyed a close relationship with the community ever since it was built as Hudson's elementary school. At the recent Halloween PJ Storytime, the gym was packed with kids and families outfitted in their coziest jammies to hear librarian Sandra Bebbington read spooky stories, then enjoy milk donated by the IGA and cookies supplied by Home and School parents. Would a program shift and more busing change that special relationship? Gwen Desjardins photo     by Lorelei Reid   HUDSON - With Mount Pleasant Elementary operating at 150 students below capacity in a region begging for a new English elementary school, the Lester B. Pearson School Board would like to see the 374-student facility converted from bilingual to the more popular early French immersion. One of three public hearings scheduled as part of the board's Major School Change 2010-2011 consultation process is being held tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Westwood Junior High School, 2800 rue Du Bordelais, St. Lazare, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The consultation will give governing boards, parents' groups and others who submitted briefs the opportunity to give advice as to how to improve the level of French competency in elementary and secondary schools and how to use board facilities more effectively. Under current guidelines, the LBPSB can't make the switch without the governing board's say-so - and that won't happen as long as Barbara Franc-Marti has a say. "It's an English school board, we should still have English schools," says Franc-Marti. "French immersion is good for some people, and I think bilingual has its purpose too," she added. "I don't think it's in anybody's benefit to get rid of either one. "We're struggling because of the laws that prohibit people from sending their children to English schools to start off, and now we're going to make it even worse by not even giving them those options anymore." So the LBPSB has included a proposal to redefine the bilingual program. The current 50/50 English/French instruction in the bilingual program would be changed to a maximum of 82 percent French instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 2, after which students will be taught 50/50 once again. The changes could be adopted by Dec. 21 and in place by next year. The LBPSB's attempt to redefine its bilingual program has led a number of parents to circulate a petition insisting this should be a choice reserved for the parents whose kids attend these 'bilingual' schools. They argue that there are many benefits of maintaining a bilingual program alongside an immersion program, and that these should be enough to keep the system as is. Among their arguments is the fact that this system gives a good early educational experience to English-only children and special needs students who would otherwise struggle in an immersion environment. There hasn't been a very high record of attendance by parents at the Major School Change meetings the past few months. Franc-Marti, a mother of four who has been present at most meetings, believes the reason for this is that the majority of parents with kids in elementary schools right now will not be affected by this change. What Franc-Marti is asking is simple: Involve the parents of the kids who will be affected by this decision. She claims the only reason she knows about any of these changes is because she currently has three kids at Mount Pleasant. Had she not known about this, her fourth child, who will be attending Mount Pleasant in two years, may have unknowingly stepped into a school that no longer offers a full bilingual program. "If you have a child who is starting in September 2010 or after that, and you're thinking 'I'm going to enrol my child in a bilingual school', that's not going to be the case anymore," she says. "The decision will have been made and these parents will not have had a chance to voice their opinions." As for the board's claim there's dwindling interest, Franc-Marti points out that Evergreen, the other bilingual school in the area, is over capacity. "They make a big point about how [Mount Pleasant] is under capacity. Well, our school has been under capacity since the school board built Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School and rezoned us," she says. "Their rezoning put us under capacity and we haven't been able to catch up since."