Thames Valley school board backtracks decision to move French immersion students to Clarke Road

The region's public school board has reversed its plan to move some French immersion students to Clarke Road Secondary School after not enough kids registered for the program along with difficulty finding teachers, CBC News has learned. 

The decision was made by Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) trustees during a meeting on Tuesday, following a discussion closed to the public. A brief note was posted to the board's website, Thursday morning, a day after officials say they notified staff and families.   

"There are recruiting challenges in the number of available qualified French immersion teachers, not only in Thames Valley but across the province and there's also a concern about enrolment viability," said board chair Beth Mai.

"The current registration numbers at [Clarke Road] didn't meet the threshold that we would have to be able to provide a sustainable program to students over a period of years."

Mai would not disclose how many students registered for the program, citing privacy concerns of the closed session discussion. 

Clarke Road would have been the board's sixth high school French immersion site in the region, and the third in London, in addition to existing programs at Sir Frederick Banting and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary Schools. TVDSB decided to create a site at Clarke Road in the 2023-24 school year due to growth pressures and the school being one of three high schools below its optimal enrolment numbers.

However, the decision received significant pushback from parents who didn't want their kids to change schools and expressed concerns during public consultations on the matter held in 2023. 

M.J. Kidnie has kids in Grades 9 and 11 who are in Banting's French immersion program. Although they wouldn't have been required to go to Clarke Road, she believes cancelling the new program is great news for French immersion in the city.  

"It became clear to me that the French immersion program as it exists now would be impoverished by adding another location in the city. If you don't have a fairly large cohort in Grade 9, it dwindles away and that means kids can't continue to get the French immersion courses in Grade 11 and 12," she said.

"I do wish the board had listened to parents because the results they found that they didn't get students enrolled, we predicted that. We didn't know about the teacher piece but I think not listening to parents led to confusion and uncertainty." 

Kidnie said plans for Clarke Road also pushed some parents to proactively enrol their children into French immersion in the region's Catholic school board, which is the fastest growing in Ontario.

Erma Schadenberg was one of those parents who enrolled her Grade 8 daughter at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary (MTS) School when she graduates from Louise Arbour Public School, which typically feeds into Banting but boundary changes would have required her to go to Clarke Road. 

However, since the board's reversal, Schadenberg said her daughter will now go to Banting, instead of MTS, adding that it's where her daughter wanted to go all along.

"I was very impressed with Mother Teresa and what they had to offer, but my daughter did choose to go back to Banting," she said. "I also have two Banting graduates so there's a bit of a family legacy that is being factored in."

In a statement, TVDSB said the decision is also made in part due to the need to prioritize financial resources responsibly. It said it will concentrate French immersion resources at Banting and Laurier "ensuring they remain well-equipped and accessible."

"As demand for French immersion grows, the board will continue exploring opportunities to expand programming in a responsible and sustainable manner while maintaining a strong foundation for student success."