Ask yourself this:
- why are there 5 single track FI (STFI) elementary schools out of a total of 84 in Halton (and all in Oakville)? Toronto, the country's largest school board, only has 4 STFI centres out of a total of 464 schools and Peel just opened their first single track FI school out of 213 elementary schools.
- Toronto offers 100% immersion until grade 3, introducing English in grade 4. Until very recently, Peel offered 80% but reduced it to 50% in an effort to manage it's FI program. Why does Halton offer partial immersion (50/50 delivery), which, according to Canadian Parents for French in this open letter to HDSB dated November 2013, "just meets the Ministry’s minimum at 3800 hours of French in grades 1-8 and is already a compromise."
- Both Toronto and Peel have limits in place for the optional FI program within each neighbourhood school and offers FI at several locations so that no child is ever denied access. This maintains the integrity of neighbourhood schools and the mandated English track. Why does Halton not follow the same model that values both English track and FI?
History of French Immersion in Halton
The HDSB has offered French immersion programming since 1978.
Halton is one of few school boards in Ontario offering partial immersion in the elementary grades. Many others use an eighty percent French and twenty percent English model in the optional French immersion programs.
Very few school boards in Ontario offer French immersion programming in single-track schools. Halton is the only Ontario school board using the partial immersion model in single-track schools. Originally all schools offering French immersion in Halton were dual-track. Any school with a commitment of thirty-two students or more could initiate a French immersion program. No special transportation was provided to allow students to attend these French “centres”. Pine Grove Public School became the first designated singletrack French immersion centre in 1990. Due to accommodation constraints at Abbey Lane Public School and a prospective closure for Pine Grove Public School, Pine Grove was designated as a French immersion single-track centre and all students from the appropriate catchment area were bussed to Pine Grove. - Comparing the Student Achievement and Learning Experiences of Elementary French
Immersion Students in Dual-Track and Single-Track Environments, Department of Research and Accountability
Halton District School Board
2002
2003
2004
2006
I assume since most of the homes in West Oak Trails are new, that families there bought their houses knowing that there was no school currently in the area. While it must be frustrating to wait patiently for a new school to be built there must have been other factors more important to them than where their children were going to go to school when they chose their homes. The main compliant seems to be that their children will have to take the bus to school but this is no different than what most immersion students are already doing. Most immersion students also go past (many) schools much closer to their homes. While it can be argued that this is a choice these families make can the same not be said of those who choose to buy homes where no school already exists? - Dual track schools hinder French immersion programs by Moira Andrade, Oakville Beaver, March 3, 2006
French public school supporters deserve a school of their own, according to a Pine Grove parent. Brenda Cavers of Ecole Pine Grove Parent Group told trustees of the Halton District School Board Wednesday night that taxpayers like her have already paid for one of the five schools built in the northwest Oakville neighbourhood. "It's time to take away the uncertainty and make a long-term, lasting commitment to French Immersion," said Cavers.
Similarly Kathryn Olmstead-Bateman is advocating a single-track for the expected new school in West Oak Trails school. "We have to put program before accommodation," said Olmstead-Bateman.
Parents opposed to making the West Oak Trails school French-only have told the board it is unfair to bus their children out of the neighbourhood and bus in students from other areas. Especially considering that they bought their homes with the understanding there would be a neighbourhood school to which their children could walk.- French Immersion parents want single track north Oakville school, Oakville Beaver, March 29, 2006
2007
"Staff reviewed this concern and the potential need to build an elementary school on the Palermo site to meet the expanded accommodation needs of full-time JK and SK in Oakville. Based on staff’s analysis, at this point a new JK to 8 school will be considered as part of the 2008 to 2013 Capital Plan. Given this possibility it was felt that an alternative solution that looked for “balance” in the community should be pursued." - Steven Parfeniuk, Superintendent of Business Services, West Oak Trails #4 Boundary Report Number: 08008, January 23, 2007
2008
In total five options were developed:
1. place 16 portables on the École Forest Trail Public School site and develop a long-term
accommodation option with the entire community during the 2008/09 school year;
2. use current capacity and recognize future capacity needs of Pine Grove Public School;
3. expand French Immersion in Ward 4 to include a dual-track school south of Upper Middle;
4. move students temporarily to a number of sites (1 to 3); and
5. relocate Grade 7 and 8 students to Pine Grove (Forest Trail becomes Grade 1-6)
School Councils - Focus Group Feedback - Report 09007
Abbey Lane School Council
We need strong English programming including special ed., music, and arts. No program should be delivered at expense of another.
We want well-utilized community schools, maximizing number of kids who can walk to school.
Captain R. Wilson School Council
Keeping children in their own neighbourhoods, where they can walk to school, supports the overall health of children and the environment and far outweighs any possible benefits to having a single track French immersion system which would require bussing students into and out of French immersion boundary limits (which is a very costly endeavour).
Mandatory (Special needs, gifted programming) and core programming should be given first priority in any program review and optional programming (i.e. French Immersion) should never be delivered at the expense of mandatory or core programs.
Emily Carr School Council
The stability of boundaries is very important and we recommend a commitment, by the Board, to boundaries for a five-year time frame.
The elimination of single-track French Immersion schools would remove the need to bus high numbers of students out of their neighbourhood in order to be educated in an English school.
Heritage Glen School Council
Heritage Glen parents want the English Core program available in all schools.
Walk-to schools are valued as key community components.
Pilgrim Wood School Council
Walk-to/neighbourhood schools with multiple program choices available to students.
Protection of English Programs at dual track schools.
West Oak School Council
Disruptions for the students should be minimized. Disruptions can occur by boundary changes or the forcing of a change of schools when moving from French Immersion (FI) to English programs (students in a dual track school could switch between programs without changing schools).
Dual track schools should be designed to have a critical amount of FI students to make the program viable (arguing against concept 3) but should also ensure that the English program remains the majority.
Forest Trail School Council
Quality education
EFT parents strongly prefer Single Track French Immersion.
FI community concerned over hostile environment and attitudes from English schools. Many parents indicate that they are considering leaving the program if their children are accommodated at Glen Abbey schools.
2009
Added to the complexity of this situation is the history of French Immersion within Oakville. In many
cases, schools that started out as dual track ended up being heavily imbalanced to the point where a
decision was made to offer single track programming. Often these dual track site communities
welcomed the French Immersion program as a way of keeping a school open in a declining enrolment
community.
Most recently the Board made a decision to open Forest Trail Public School as a single track school.
There were families within the Forest Trail community who were opposed to this plan as it meant if they
did not or could not choose French Immersion, then their children would require bussing to another
school within Ward 4.
English Track communities fear the Board may abuse its power and unilaterally create single track
French Immersion Centres within their communities. They fear also that in welcoming French
Immersion into their schools in a dual track format, they will within a foreseeable future be
overwhelmed by the French Immersion population and in time their school will transform into a single
track centre.
French Track communities fear that allowing their students into a dual track environment would leave
them susceptible to bullying by the English track students (and parents). They also fear the quality of
the French immersion experience/program would in some way be diminished. - Wayne Joudrie, Director of Education from Oakville Ward 4 Review of Research and Student Data
“Over the last several months in our community, there has been a lot of animosity,” Bateman-Olmstead said. “I am extremely concerned that some members of Pilgrim Wood may not be welcoming until we sort the French immersion issue out…. While I believe in the best of intentions and that people really have the best intentions, I am concerned that if we are to utilize Pilgrim Wood before we establish what the end result is, that maybe it is not the best choice right now. - Oakville Beaver, Feb 04, 2009
My children are in Dual Track French Immersion, and I resent the belief that they are not getting the same level of profiency in French that their counterparts in Single Track are. As a bilingual, Oakville parent, I can honestly say that overall dual track is more effective in the long run. The children are able to associate with the other children from their neighborhood and if they are unable to keep up in French Immersion, then as parents we don't have to move them out or separate siblings! - Drew Milikas, January 2009
Bateman-Olmstead’s recommendations put a heavier emphasis on single-track French immersion. She said the reason behind the new solutions is her unhappiness, as well as that of many Ward 4 parents, with Joudrie’s final recommendations.
“One of the things this board continues to work on is making kids feel safe and making them feel like they belong in their schools,” she said. “One of the things that came up (in the consultation process), I think significantly, was belonging in French immersion single-track schools is higher than all of the other schools across Halton. I think that is significant. Single-track provides for our children, for our parents and in my ward, provides sustainability and stability a whole lot better than what I’ve seen from dual-track models.” - Oakville Beaver, March 6, 2009
Questions were posed regarding the Ministry’s position on single-track schools, based on the Board’s history with Forest Trail Public School, and plans for single-track designation in PARC 16 - HDSB board minutes March 27, 2009
A last-minute compromise on the contentious issue of public school accommodation in Ward 4 received unanimous support from Halton District School Board trustees on Wednesday night. For months, the board has been grappling
with how to address overcrowding at some schools in the area, while managing declining enrolment at others. The compromise plan will minimize disruption for the area’s English students, and will see a new elementary school in Palermo built as a dual-track English and French Immersion school.
However, it will also mean moving away from the single-track French Immersion model that has been touted by many
parents and trustees as academically superior to the dual-track model. Oakville trustee Kathyrn Bateman-Olmstead, who has been strongly supportive of the single-track model, moved the dual-track motion following narrow defeat of an earlier motion that would have seen the Palermo school built as a single-track French Immersion facility.
Trustees voted down that plan by a six to five vote, with many of the dissenters expressing concern that a singletrack school would shut English and special needs Palermo students out of their new neighbourhood school. - Oakville Beaver March 27, 2009