In addition to L’Île-des-Sœurs, another primary school project has been put on hold by Quebec, this time in Mount Royal. The Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center (CSSMB) says it has also observed “a significant drop in the number of students” in the municipality.
Posted at 10:21 a.m.
“For 2022 alone, our primary schools in the area have welcomed nearly 100 fewer students than expected and government projections point to further declines over the next few years,” writes the service center’s deputy director general, Danielle Roberge, and its director at the School Organization Department, Nathalie Provost, in a letter sent to parents.
The two executives use more or less the same vocabulary as in another letter sent to parents in L’Île-des-Sœurs, where a much-awaited primary school project, planned and budgeted for years, has also been put on the pause.
They recall that as early as June 2019, the Ministry of Education confirmed in its 2019-2029 Quebec Infrastructure Plan “that a new elementary school was going to be built in Mount Royal”. “The data available at that time demonstrated the need to build a new primary school to meet future needs,” they say.
The expansion of Mount Royal High School was also planned, but will be ruled out for the time being. Since then, “a new trend is emerging”. “The ministry’s clientele projections for last June, as well as the data observed on September 30, indicate a significant drop in the number of students in the sector,” they point out.
Months of heated debate
Discussions have been taking place in Mount Royal for more than a year about the arrival of a new French-language elementary school. The administration, struck by a demographic upheaval which generated a large number of new French-speaking students, had come to the conclusion that it should have a fourth primary school.
A solution was launched from the outset: build this school on land adjacent to Dunrae Gardens School, an English-language primary school. This space, property of the English-Montreal School Board (EMSB), has however since been discarded. According to our sources, Ernest-B.-Jubien Park was then considered as a possible avenue.
The debate was lively on this subject. A group of about 900 citizens had filed a petition in recent weeks opposing the construction of a school in Ernest-B.-Jubien Park, considered a “green lung”. The Association des parents de Mont-Royal (APMR), however, supported the idea of a new school, judging that the students “are in great need of it”. A petition of 1300 signatories had also been filed.
According to Mme Roberge and Provost, “88 groups made up our primary schools in Mount Royal in 2020”. “In 2021-2022, we had 84 within these establishments. Finally, as of September 30, the CSSMB had 81 groups. The pandemic context, as well as the economic conditions, seem to have hit the Mont-Royal sector hard,” point out the directors.
They argue that recent government projections even indicate that modular units – those mobile classes that had been mentioned to accommodate more students – “would no longer be necessary in a few years”.
Joined by The Press, the mayor of Mont-Royal, Peter Malouf, said he “understands the decision” of the CSSMB. “Governments should, however, be a little more up-to-date with their statistics, and work more closely with cities”, he however claimed, calling for more “regular” demographic analyzes to avoid back and forth of the gender.
“With the pandemic, with the number of people who have gone to the suburbs, with the cost of residences which have increased significantly, and especially with the new assessment roll, the situation has changed a lot,” nevertheless conceded Mr. Malouf. .
Meeting requested in L’Île-des-Sœurs
The day after the announcement to the parents of L’Île-des-Sœurs of the suspension of a school project in their sector, the new deputy for Verdun, Alejandra Zaga Mendez, called for an emergency meeting with the ministry. of Education and the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Service Center.
“Access to public education should not be put on hold! With this news, the CAQ is abandoning children who are still taking their classes in office towers, high school students without a school nearby and children who need reception classes. We must respond to the glaring needs of the community: having new school infrastructures on L’Île-des-Sœurs is a necessity, ”said the elected representative of Québec solidaire.
With Vincent Larin