Lakeside Academy students, parents 'stunned' by closure

Students at Lakeside Academy high school are struggling to come to terms with news their high school will be shut down at the end of the year.

"Everyone is very devastated," Nicole Freeman, who has two sons at the school, told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

"My son burst into the room and said it was a sad day in Lakeside history. We just didn't believe it, we thought he was joking."

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The closure is one of several moves approved by the Lester B. Pearson School Board as it seeks to address an expected budget shortfall.

The school board also voted to merge eight of its elementary schools into four.

Here are the details:

• Thorndale Elementary will merge into Greendale's building.
• Orchard Elementary will merge into St. Lawrence Elementary Junior and Senior
• Riverview Elementary will merge into Verdun Elementary
• Sherwood Forest and St. Paul will merge to create a junior and senior grade school. The junior school (Kindergarten to Grade 2) will be in St-Paul building and the senior school (Grade 3 to 6) will be in Sherwood Forest.

The International Language Centre-Marcus Tabachnick Pavilion in Dorval will also close at the end of this year.

Dwindling enrolment

For her part, Freeman said she's not yet sure where her sons will go to school next year. 

She said Lakeside was a special school, which many people "chose over even private school."

Freeman said enrolment has been on the decline in the aftermath of Quebec's language law, Bill 101, which limits who can attend an English school.

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"The numbers have been dwindling and dwindling over the years," she said.

Beth Weaver, who also has two sons at the school, said it's going to be challenging to find another school, especially if she wants to find a way to keep them in the International Baccalaureate program.

"We're not really sure," she said, adding that it's difficult to say who is to blame for the closure.

"It's part of a deeper issue and a longer term issue where the focus on community schools lost its lustre." 

Budget shortfall

The Lester B. Pearson School Board undertook this latest round of mergers and closures after warning last March it faced a budgetary shortfall and declining enrolment numbers.

The school board's expenses — most of which are tied up salaries — have been rising more quickly than its revenues, which come from Quebec's Education Ministry. 

In 2013-2014, the school board had a $4-million budget shortfall.

Board chair Suanne Stein Day said the province left them with little choice. 

"By doing it this way, we get to plan the closures, we get to plan the transportation, we get to ease the communities into their new environments," she said.  

"We do it in the most responsible way, matching programs and students and staff effectively."

Lakeside Academy is currently at 37 per cent capacity. So is Lindsay Place High School in Pointe-Claire, however, Stein Day said that a "thorough analysis" concluded that it made more sense to close Lakeside.

"In the next few years, it may be necessary to put other programs in a high school, like adult and vocational services or another division. Lindsay Place would be able to accommodate that," Stein Day told CBC in an email.

She also added that the Lindsay Place building is in better condition.

"While both buildings have had many recent upgrades, the deferred maintenance on the Lakeside building was higher than the Lindsay Place building."

Stein Day says the board will set up committees to ease the transition for merging schools.

Increased emphasis on French

The school board serves approximately 21,000 students in the youth sector and another 8,700 in its continuing education sector, but enrolment has been on the decline at both the elementary and high school level.

Only 12 of Lester B. Pearson's 50 elementary and secondary schools expect to see increased enrolment between now and 2017-2018, according to the school board's own projections. 

In the past, Stein Day said parents have made it clear more French-language teaching is a priority in the system, and the school board will put an emphasis in the hopes of increasing enrolment.

No closures or mergers for EMSB

The English Montreal School Board – the other English-language board on the island of Montreal – said it does not intend to follow the lead of the Lester B. Pearson board by closing or merging schools with low enrolment.

Angela Mancini, the chairwoman of the EMSB, said the provincial government suggested last summer that it was going to cut maintenance budgets, but no cuts have been implemented yet.

"We want to be able to maintain a footprint across the island of Montreal...because if you close schools and you don't have one nearby, then some students can be on a bus for over an hour to get to school, and that's really unacceptable in any area."