École La Vérendrye parents furious over decision to split school

École La Vérendrye parents say the Winnipeg School Division decision to use Sir William Osler School for younger grades this fall is mind boggling.

The decision came out of a special meeting of the division's board of trustees on Monday night. Officials have been looking at ways to deal with overcrowding at the French immersion school.

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Parents say they've been blindsided by the move.

Ratna Pandey, who has two children at La Vérendrye, says parents were not consulted on the decision.

"Ridiculous, as far as a lot of us are concerned. We're concerned about our kids. We're concerned about again, education levels. It's boggling, mind-boggling," Pandey said.

La Vérendrye parents had pushed for a building swap with Earl Grey School, but that proposal drew the ire of Earl Grey parents who feared the school would lose its junior high and nursery programs as a result.

Last night, the Winnipeg School Division released a statement saying that starting in September, Sir William Osler School will be used for nursery to Grade 1 students, while Robert H. Smith and Earl Grey schools will remain unchanged for now.

"In order to address space requirements for École LaVérendrye, we are proceeding with the necessary arrangements to have the Sir William Osler facility operate as a second school site in September 2015," board chair Mark Wasyliw said in a news release.

"In essence, École LaVérendrye will become one school with two sites."

Parents of students in École LaVérendrye, Earl Grey and École Robert H. Smith will receive information about the plan.

​Pandey said the parents are worried about how splitting up the older and the younger students will affect their children's education.

"Those students mentor the younger students in math and reading, so that program is effectively going to disappear. The logistics of this is, we haven't even gotten any details on that," Pandey said.

She said parents have questions about everything from transportation to the impact on daycare.

A parent committee meeting was held Tuesday night at 290 Lilac St. to discuss the changes.

Gord Gilmour was in attendance. His six-year-old daughter is affected by the decision.

"I don't think the school board should have allowed it to reach this crisis proportion," said Gilmour. "They've known about it for four or five years. At this point they should have been able to address it. They shouldn't be looking and throwing families basically into crisis."

A town hall meeting is scheduled for May 26.