Tag Archives: Thames Valley District School Board

01.16.16
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A temporary fix for a long-term headache

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Call it the Great Divide — the emotional rift at Pierre Elliott Trudeau French Immersion School that was the byproduct of attempts to reach a consensus to ease severe overcrowding at the former Homedale Senior Elementary School.
And the unanimous decision this past Tuesday to proceed with the Thames Valley District School Board’s preferred option of busing students to Port Stanley will not quickly heal the wound.
Referred to as Option 1, the plan entails moving French Immersion and Extended French students in Grades 7 and 8 to Port Stanley Public School, beginning in September.
It was the recommendation of senior TVDSB administrators and will transform Pierre Elliott Trudeau school into a senior kindergarten to Grade 6 facility  for the time being.
In a discussion Thursday with Kevin Bushell, TVDSB manager of facility services, he explained the goal is to keep a cohort of students together.
By that, Bushell stressed the importance of “keeping the Grade 7 and 8’s together and not splitting them between two schools . . .  And we couldn’t get a large number for kindergarten to Grade 8 for French Immersion in Port Stanley so we would have small class sizes, split grades and small cohorts of students. Continue reading →

05.16.15
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Over-capacity and under-used, aye there’s the rub

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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 →

05.02.15
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No portage for les Voyageurs this year

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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 →

04.18.15
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Hey, you can’t threaten us in that tone!

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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 →

03.20.15
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French Immersion overcrowding an issue in Elgin since 2013

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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 →

09.03.11
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Practice of double-dipping ‘a crime against our youth’

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Later this month, the board of directors at St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital will sit down to determine the next chapter in the Paul Collins saga.

The CEO’s one-year retire/rehire contract expires at the end of the year, and a likely scenario would see the board push for a two- or perhaps three-year extension so Collins can hang around for the hospital expansion/redevelopment.

In a letter to the editor on July 13, Bob McCaig wrote, “I find it morally repugnant that this practice (double-dipping) is so widespread. Our political masters are turning a blind eye to a practice that is forcing young people to either wait idly or leave Ontario while the pigs at the trough gobble up a final helping.”

Following publication of that letter, McCaig was buoyed by the favourable public response and undertook further research into double-dipping and we present his findings, which he warns is “a crime against our youth.”
Continue reading →

07.02.11
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A female role model — she’s right in our own backyard

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A week ago in this corner, we promoted several local individuals for consideration when re-naming Edward Street Public School.

Including Edra Sanders Ferguson, who was the first woman to practise law in St. Thomas, the first woman in the city’s history elected alderman and the first woman to run for mayor.

Now, add to those credentials the Order of Canada, one of our country’s highest civilian honours, which was awarded to Sanders Ferguson on Thursday.

Responding to this honour, she writes, “I was very surprised to receive this prestigious honour as I did not know I had been nominated. I have now learned that it was a young woman who nominated me. I would guess that most nominations are made by the rich and powerful. I am so pleased that a young woman without power or influence would take such an initiative — and be successful.”
Continue reading →

06.25.11
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Note to London school board, it’s time to honour our own

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The London-based school board has quietly made it known the expanded Edward Street Public School is about to christened June Rose Callwood Public School.

It’s certainly not a name singularly associated with this city. Not to downplay the contributions of the popular journalist, author and social activist, but is this the wish of the existing school community, or is the name change driven by the incoming population from Balaclava and Scott Street public schools?
Continue reading →

06.04.11
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Rain on his parade? Steve dumps water on the speculation

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Our MP Joe Preston waxed poetic about it in Friday’s T-J. Popular QMI Agency columnist Christina Blizzard speculated in the same paper that perhaps the 39th Ontario parliament was abruptly prorogued Wednesday, a day ahead of schedule, in order to derail plans for a fond send-off on Thursday.

The centre of all this ink-drenched attention, MPP Steve Peters — who supposedly had been critical of his own government just days previous — couldn’t help chuckling when he spoke to City Scope from his home on Friday.

“I think people are reading far too much into that,” he opined. “The (provincial) clerk actually said to me Monday morning, “We don’t have a lot to do.’ There really wasn’t a lot on the agenda.”
Continue reading →