INNISFAIL – The final stages are in place to end French immersion programming at all Innisfail schools.
Due to reduced enrolment of French immersion at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School, the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools system discontinued its Innisfail program in 2012, five years after the school board first offered it.
In the public school system, the Chinook’s Edge School Division has planned for all French immersion programming to end in 2026; almost 23 years after it began in September of 2003.
In the current school year, French immersion from Chinook’s Edge’s is offered only to students from grades 1 to 4 at Innisfail’s École John Wilson Elementary School.
It was nine years after Chinook’s Edge had first brought French immersion to Innisfail in 2003 when the program’s original students were finally set to enter the 2011-12 school year at Innisfail High School.
“We have waited a long time for the program to build and our goal is to get every one of those kids though Grade 12 with a French certificate,” commented IHS principal John Hand in June of 2011. “Four years ago, the school board made us a promise to see these kids through the program.”
But even 12 years ago Hand had a concern for the future.
“With smaller class sizes coming into the school the program will need some support,” he said.
In fact, the highest grade of French immersion in Innisfail was just Grade 9, and it was last offered in the 2018-2019 school year.
The final year of French immersion in grades 5 to 8 in Innisfail was in 2020-21.
Chinook’s Edge’s communications department told the Albertan last week that in the fall of 2023, French immersion will be offered in grades 2 to 4.
In the fall of 2024, it will be offered in grades 3 and 4, and in the fall of 2025 it will be only be available in grade 4.
And in 2026 the plan is for no French immersion at all.
Earlier this month Kurt Sacher, the superintendent of schools for the Chinook’s Edge School Division, said recent French immersion program numbers in Innisfail have not supported the school board’s long-term strategy.
Sacher said French immersion in Innisfail has been “transitioning” for the past few years at different grade levels and the latest move involves students up to Grade 4.
“We've informed those parents at the primary level that we won't be continuing on,” said Sacher. “We're going to grandfather the programming for the ones that are in it for the next three to four years just to finish off our commitment to those families but we're not bringing in new families into the French immersion program.
“We're not trying to rebuild it,” he added. “We're just trying to move away from it.”
In the meantime, French immersion programming from Chinook’s Edge is still available at three schools in both Olds and Sylvan Lake. Sacher said there is a “significantly higher demand” in those communities.
He told the Albertan last month that Chinook’s Edge’s French Immersion enrolment in Olds is “solid”.
“We’ve got enough students in the different grade levels to run a solid program,” said Sacher, who was responding to concerns from members of the Olds Chapter of Canadian Parents (CPF) for French that the program could be dropped or lose funding.
Sacher said 143 students are enrolled in French Immersion in Olds schools from kindergarten through Grade 12.
“It’s been solid and stable for the 12 years that I’ve been here as superintendent and I don’t anticipate it – a change in French immersion programming in Olds,” said Sacher.
