'A bad move': Parents question plan to transfer French students to Holy Cross

Some parents in St. John's are upset about a decision by the province's French school board to relocate older students to another school.

• Holy Cross to serve as 'temporary' French school for Grades 7-12 in St. John's

The Conseil scolaire francophone provincial de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador (CSFP) announced last week that it will move Grades 7 to 12 students from l'École des Grands-Vents in St. John's to the former Holy Cross School on Ricketts Road in September.

The move is meant to ease overcrowding at l'École des Grands-Vents, but Kim Welford, the president of the school's parents' committee said many aren't satisfied with the decision. 

Welford said Monday that she believes the board didn't consult with parents, instead holding an information session when the decision was already made.

"It wasn't very much information. It was more a map and a picture of a school and promises and unicorns and rainbows that this was going to all be perfect," said Welford.

​"And parents who had concerns were pretty much shushed up."

She worries what will happen when students are moved to Holy Cross, which she believes is far too big. While the board estimates 49 students will move, Welford said it is more likely to be 30.   

"I think it's really a bad move to take the most vulnerable children in the school and put them in an isolated environment. We already know we have a huge attrition rate so there's going to be even less kids."

Board says move a short-term plan

Last week, school board officials said the move is temporary solution to overcrowding.

The long term plan is to have another French school for students in the city within five years.

While some parents had asked for an expansion of Grand-Vents so the older and younger students could stay together, Kim Christianson, the CSFP's director of education, said the board weighed that decision and decided against it.

She told CBC News last week that moving to Holy Cross was the best option.

"[L'École des Grand-Vents] is not made for students that are at the senior level. The gymnasium is not the full-size for a high school, there are no science labs," she said.

Meanwhile, Welford worries about what her own children, currently in Grade 1 and Grade 4, will face.  

"The kids in the high school are are already doing courses by correspondence on computers and apparently that's not going to change," she said.

"How is that going to make it at least equivalent to what's being offered in the English system? It's not."

She said the move has already caused the parents of at least eight children to pledge to enroll their kids in the English school system instead.

"I think this is a political move to show that the French community is somehow spreading its footprint but at the same time they are sacrificing half of their student body, and they don't appear to care," she said.