The province has listened and the stretch of Glanworth Drive known as the farmer’s freeway will remain intact with a new alignment of the overpass at Highway 401.
At a public information centre held Thursday (Feb. 1) at the Stoneridge Inn, London, the Ministry of Transportation unveiled its preferred alternative for interchange improvements at the 401 and Col. Talbot Drive.
The original plan would have seen the Glanworth Drive bridge demolished, forcing farmers to move their massive implements on to busier roads. The new interchange will see the Glanworth Bridge replaced and realigned further east with the roadway repositioned to meet Col. Talbot Drive north of its present junction at Littlewood Drive. Continue reading
Tag Archives: French Immersion
Over-capacity and under-used, aye there’s the rub
A special meeting of council on Tuesday which included invited officials from the Thames Valley District School Board did little to heal the great divide in the Pierre Elliott Trudeau French Immersion School community.
In fact, if anything, the rift has widened.
The tone was established early when manager of facility services Kevin Bushell admitted the board “mis-read the community” when dealing with overcrowding at the French Immersion school.
He then announced — and which was confirmed later that evening at the scheduled board meeting in London — an area attendance review would be undertaken beginning in the fall to be completed before the end of the year.
So, there will be no busing of senior students from the school to Port Stanley Public School to deal with severe over-crowding at the former Homedale Senior Elementary School. Continue reading
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No portage for les Voyageurs this year
The overwhelming success of the French Immersion program at Pierre Elliott Trudeau school is to be admired.
The downside of that success is severe overcrowding at the school, which has resulted in what can only be called a great divide.
The rift in the school community over busing 240 students to Port Stanley to relieve pressure on a school that is literally bursting at the seams.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Thames Valley District School Board, a recommendation was made to put on hold for a year the busing plan while a full attendance area review be completed this fall. Continue reading
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Hey, you can’t threaten us in that tone!
The Times-Journal has referred to it as The Great Divide: the emotional rift at Pierre Elliott Trudeau French Immersion School that is the result of a school board decision to bus more than 200 students to Port Stanley Public School in the fall due to overcrowding at their home school.
Only 30 or so parents attended a January forum held by the school council to propose options to alleviate the crush of students at the former Homedale Public School.
The population at the school has swelled from 494 students in 2010 to 780 in 2014. Continue reading
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French Immersion overcrowding an issue in Elgin since 2013
The ‘re-designation’ of 240 students to Port Stanley Public School was one of several short-term solutions considered, advises a member of the school council at Pierre Elliott Trudeau French Immersion School.
And one of the options would have seen those students returning to Wellington Public School, where most of them attended prior to the opening of their new home in the former Homedale Senior Elementary School.
It’s a possibility that may yet see the light of day, advises St. Thomas CAO Wendell Graves.
“Anything is possible,” Graves says. “One of the committees of council relates to the courthouse/Wellington block area and they have met a couple of times to work through a couple of potential strategies for that Wellington block which Algoma (University) will be done with at the end of the school year.
“We’re also going to be setting up a council/Thames Valley District School Board liaison meeting where we want to talk about some common issues in the city so that would be one that is on our agenda to talk to them about in terms of French Immersion.” Continue reading
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French Immersion students ‘re-designated’ to Port Stanley
The sheer popularity of the program will send senior students at Pierre Elliott Trudeau French Immersion School on to buses and out of St. Thomas.
And that has one parent taking to Facebook to challenge the decision by Thames Valley District School Board to “re-designate” students to Port Stanley Public School, beginning in September.
A letter was sent home with students Friday outlining the plan to address overcrowding at the board’s lone French Immersion school in Elgin.
“Parents in the Pierre Elliott French Immersion Public School community have expressed concerns about the overcrowding and have asked the Thames Valley District School Board to look at options for accommodating French Immersion students in more than one school,” writes Don Macpherson, superintendent of student achievement. Continue reading
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