Rationale for Recommendations
Benefits to Students
Benefits to Students
- The fewest number of students are displaced by the second dual track site option, especially if phased in over the next few years. Disruption to a student’s primary education through changing schools should be minimized and the phased in second dual track site coupled with phased in border changes accomplishes this better than any available single track option.
- No student loses their community school as would occur in the single track option.
- Choice of programming through the community school setting is increased.
- Easier transition to the English stream if there is a need to transfer out of the FI program
- Siblings who may be in different programs are not separated .
- Dual track schools increase diversity enriching the experience for all students.
- Dual track schools avoid segregation by ability or program. Given that the vast majority of students with IEPs are in the core program the shift to a single track school coupled with bussing of core students out of their neighbourhood results in a disproportionate displacement of students with special needs away from their community school. This is a violation of the principle of equal access in a public school system.
- Expansion of the dual track model which offers French Immersion within a community school setting does not create discrimination based on ability and allows all students to attend the same school as their siblings, friends and neighbours.
- FI programs create gender disparity in the classroom whether at a single track school or dual track schools. At dual track schools the effects of a gender imbalance can be reduced through blended programming in the English portion of the day. Furthermore re-distribution of the FI population to two well-balanced dual track sites increases the potential for blended programming in addition to re-balancing school-wide gender disparity.
- Accessibility – there are no barriers to students at either of the 2 dual track choices or at the current site.
- No community loses their community school as would occur in the single track option.
- Good urban planning principles state that smaller community-based schools are the best model for supporting viable, vibrant communities and can be a major driver for economic stability and growth in communities (as presented by Kristen Sainsbury, Urban Planner).
- The value of inter-generational schooling should not be underestimated when assessing the importance of schools to a community. Support for specific neighbourhood schools and the public school system in general relies on a community’s attachment to its school. This is enhanced by inter-generational school attendance.
- Diversity in a neighbourhood is an essential component of vibrant communities and this is reflected in its neighbourhood school. A single track French Immersion school that displaces a community school increases the risk that the neighbourhood demographics will shift to fewer families thereby reducing diversity. A single track French Immersion school also creates a concentrated socio-economic disparity among schools within the city. In contrast, expansion of the dual track model and movement of borders offers the opportunity to adjust socio-economic distribution of students across the city of Stratford resulting in more balance and less disparity between schools in terms of items such as needs, fundraising, etc.