Superintendent fuels speculation for French school in Kennebecasis Valley

The superintendent responsible for francophone schools in southern New Brunswick is giving hope to a group of parents in the Kennebecasis Valley that a temporary school could be established for September 2009.

Parents from the valley made a presentation to the district education council earlier this week. Anne-Marie LeBlanc, the District 1 superintendent, said the parents made a strong case considering the francophone school in Saint John, École Samuel de Champlain, was just expanded, but it has already reached capacity.

LeBlanc said the school may need two portable classrooms to accommodate new kindergarten classes this fall.

"If we need to invest in mobiles at Samuel de Champlain, those mobiles are quite expensive. We're talking about over $100,000 a unit," LeBlanc said.

"Perhaps it's not ambitious because we could perhaps find something suitable in the valley right now able to accommodate those students for the same price and according to the norms of the Department of Education."

LeBlanc said some children have to travel more than an hour on school buses to kindergarten. Marc Mathurin, a parent involved in trying to bring a temporary school to the region, said the province now pays a taxi to bring one child from Sussex to the Saint John school.

Mathurin said there are more than 150 students from his region busing to Saint John for kindergarten to Grade 5 and he believes that is more than enough to warrant a school.

LeBlanc says a new francophone school in the Kennebecasis Valley was already on the district's agenda for 2012. But, she said, given the current situation, it may be needed sooner.