WATCH ABOVE: Parents are up-in-arms because the Riverside English School Board in Brossard is taking a look at re-zoning its school territories. Rachel Lau reports.
BROSSARD – Marlyn Birmingham is a mother of two.
She sent her children to Saint-Lambert Elementary school to ensure they received a top notch education, but Birmingham says they may soon be forced to attend another school.
This is because the Riverside English School Board is taking a look at re-zoning its school territories.
“It’s our kids and the thing we get the most worked up about and they’re going to decide this in a month? What’s the big hurry?” said Birmingham.
The plan was presented to parents Monday night, leaving many concerned.
“They will not have that same routine that they have gotten used to,” said Bersabe Renomeron, a mother of seven children who have gone to Harold Napper Elementary School, despite living out of the designated zone.
This is because, as it stands now, some areas of Brossard are double-zoned, which means parents can send their children to either an elementary school in Saint-Lambert or one of the two schools in Brossard.
But if the zones change, parents will no longer have this option.
One reason for re-drawing the boundaries is that the school board said that it needs to reduce overcrowding at Harold Napper, which is currently at 125 per cent over-capacity.
Officials would like to see enrolment there shrink from over 600 to around 400 students.
“I don’t think it’s the time for great panic right now,” said Moira Bell, the chairperson of the Riverside English Montreal School Board.
“I think we’re in this mode of pre-consultation and in-consultation, and I think it is really, really important to hear from our parents and that’s really what we want to do.”
Birmingham said she would rather send her children to the French school across the street than have her options taken away.
“If I have to pick two schools I don’t like, I’ll pick the one that’s closer to me,” she said.
“Why am I going to bus my kid to a school I don’t like when I can walk him to the school I don’t like? It just doesn’t make sense.”
The school board will meet with each of the schools next week to discuss concerns, including a request to allow students already registered to remain at their current schools.
Re-zoning plans are expected to be determined by the end of the year for registration in early January.
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