DORVAL – Jennifer Park is one of the most vocal parents in the fight to save Lakeside Academy from closure.
READ MORE: Parents react to news of school closures at LBPSB
To emphasize this, teachers gave her a sweatshirt with the words “Trouble Maker” written on the right arm.
You could say causing a stir is something she wears on her sleeve.
“It was such a great feeling,” Park told Global News of receiving her gift.
READ MORE: More English voices need to be heard at Bill 86 hearings, says QCGN
All the same, she knows there’s a lot of hard work ahead.
Commissioners voted Monday night to keep Lakeside Academy and Riverview Elementary open until at least December.
Now, parents have to convince the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) to keep the schools open longterm.
READ MORE: Lester B. Pearson School Board reconsiders closures
Chairperson Suanne Stein Day said the board is under pressure to reduce the number of schools operating at less than 50 per cent capacity.
Parents have to show them how enrolment at the two schools can increase by hundreds of pupils.
Parents admitted it’s a daunting task.
One notion, floated by Lachine councillor Maja Vodanovic, is to reconfigure school boards along regional, not linguistic lines in an effort to bring in more kids.
Another issue that clouds the next academic year is what will happen to the boards if the Quebec government passes Bill 86.
Committee hearings examining the proposed law, designed to do away with school board elections, get underway at the National Assembly in Quebec City on Jan. 28.
READ MORE: Possible school board reforms pose no threat to Anglophones: Birnbaum
The LBPSB will meet in December to decide whether or not to keep Lakeside Academy and Riverview Elementary open.
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