A group of parents from St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School have dodged a bullet, at least temporarily, for the future of their children’s education after learning one of the institution’s newest programs may be in jeopardy.
The French emersion program at St. Marguerite is currently in it’s fourth year of operation but decreasing enrollment numbers in younger grades have caused the Red Deer Catholic Regional School Board to question the viability of the program, said school board representatives.
However, after hearing a passionate plea from a concerned group of parents during the regular Board meeting on April 5, they voted to continue the program for at least one more year.
The motion to terminate the program was defeated in a vote of 5-1, with only trustee Elaine Halter voting for the termination of the program.
Parents had been made aware of the problem just less than two weeks before their presentation to the Board and they strongly expressed their displeasure of the short notice during their presentation.
However, it was not their anger that convinced the board to defeat the recommendation, it was their passionate dedication to their children’s education that turned the tables.
“As parents we are committed to a quality French immersion program and we are committed to a Catholic education for our children,” said Shelley Gagnon, a parent who spoke on behalf of the close to 20 parents in attendance at the meeting.
“We strongly believe that we should be given time. Time to work together to aggressively market the program and time to properly make decisions about our child’s educational future.”
Parents appealed to the Board asking them to consider giving the school, the parents, and the program one more chance to build and increase enrollment numbers to satisfy the funding requirements.
Paulette Hanna, superintendent of schools, told parents during the meeting they did not intend to give parents such short notice of troubles they were having with the budget.
“We didn’t know at the time how difficult the budget was and didn’t know some students would be transferring out of French,” said Hanna, of the current registration numbers for next year.
“My other concern is that the population of Innisfail is not large enough to support two French Emersion programs.”
However, despite the budget restrictions the parents appeal was successful and the Board agreed to provide financial support for the program for next year.
Many of the school board trustees showed their support for keeping the program going and local trustee Diane MacKay asked her fellow Board members to defeat the motion as she believes having parents on the ground helping promote the program may be able to bring numbers to the school.
Parents were pleased with the decision but now know they will have to work to keep the program going past next school year.
“We are really excited about the program continuing. I like to have my kids in a Catholic school and we would be devastated if the program went away,” said Ilona Eggink, who has one child in French emersion this year and will have two next year.
“Now our goal will be to create more numbers for the program to keep it going after this year.”
School board administration and St. Marguerite staff will now be looking at how to best continue with the program as it may not look the same next year as it has in the past but school staff said they are pleased with the decision of the Board and will continue to work with it to offer the program in the future.
