French immersion surge could force changes at Winnipeg schools

More children enrolling in French immersion in Winnipeg's Louis Riel School Divisioncould mean a change in schools for some families.

About 100 people attended a meeting Monday night atEcoleProvencherin the St. Boniface neighbourhood.

The division's assistant superintendentChristianMichaliksaid some changes to the grade configurations are being considered at two elementary schoolsEcole Provencher and EcoleHenri-Bergeronto address capacity issues at Collge Bliveau, a Grade 7 to 12 French immersion school.

Instead of two elementary schools, either Provencher or Henri-Bergeronwould become an early years school, while theother would turn into a middle school for students from Grade 4 to 8.

What the change would mean iskids right now that are in Grade 6, that normally would move on in Grade 7 toCollgeBliveauwould stay putin one of the two schools the one chosen to be the middle school for Grade 7 and Grade 8 the following year,Michaliksaid.

Mimi Brown, whose son is in Grade 3 atEcoleProvencher,worries how changing schools could affect her son getting to and from daycare.

They don't have the staffing to be able to walk that extra two blocks, especially if it's 30-something below outside," she said. "That's not even what's healthy for the kids. If they can't go outside for recess, they shouldn't be walking 20 minutes to daycare.

Another meeting on the issue will be held for parents at Henri-BergeronSchool Tuesday night.

School swap eyed in Fort Rouge

Similarly, in the Winnipeg School Division, the popularity of French instruction has raised the possibility of a full school swap.

An emergency meeting was held at the end of January to talk about overcrowding atEcoleLaVerendrye, an elementary school in Fort Rouge. The division is considering aswap that would see students from that school shift start attending classes at nearby Earl Grey School, and viceversa.

LaVerendrye'sgrowing student populationhas created an overcrowding issue, which has resulted in a portable classroom being built on the playground, the music room being turned into a classroom (and music classesbeing held in the library), and a heritage classroom being moved to another school altogether.

Meanwhile,Earl Grey currently has space that is vacant and not in use.