Vaudreuil to Hudson student transfer could be avoided, mayor says

The mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion says he's surprised the Lester B. Pearson School Board has decided to transfer students to Hudson withoutcoming to him to find another solution to an overcrowding problem.

"We would have surely agreed to accommodate them, because we don't want any of our children to have to go to Hudson," said Guy Pilon. "But so far we haven't received any demands."

On Wednesday, the Lester B. Pearson School Board announced that due to zoning changes, students from at least 50 families now at Pierre Elliott TrudeauElementary Schoolwould be transferred to Mount Pleasant Elementary School in Hudson, about 15 kilometres away.

School board officials said the re-zoning was made necessary becausethe Vaudreuil school is bursting at the seams.

Over the past few years, PierreElliottTrudeauSchoolhas sent several requests to the city, asking permission to installportable classroomsin order to deal with the overcrowding.

Pilon saidthe city agreed to the request eachtime and would have done the same this time around.

More portable classrooms not enough, boardsays

The mayor's comments come as welcome news to Kalpesh Patel. The parent of four children, helives just three kilometres away from Pierre Elliott Trudeau School but the family is now zoned in the catchment area for Hudson.

"We just need to petition the Quebec government now," he said.

However, the Lester B. Pearson School Board saida third portable classroom wouldaddress some of the issues, but not all.

"That could be a possibility, but our projections for that area show another 150 students moving in," said Carol Heffernan, the board'sassistant director general.

"So it would address 22 or 23 students but not another 130. It also wouldn't address the size of the building. It doesn't make the gym any larger, it doesn't give them a computer room," Heffernan added.

Many parents are upset by the change. Some told CBC that they will sendtheir childrento French-language schools if the Lester B. Pearson School Board doesn't reconsider the zoning decision.