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Posted by: belynnpita on 03/03/2009 10:56 AM
Updated by: furlong on 03/03/2009 10:56 AM Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM Will Chippewa be the next French Immersion School?As the Near North Board of Education ponders school closings and realignments, Chippewa Secondary School is being considered as a possible location for a French Immersion school.By Belynn Ptawanakwat theclaw.ca Chippewa Secondary School is being considered as a possible location for a French Immersion school from Kindergarten to Grade 8. But that idea has many parents concerned about what the future holds for their children’s educational career. The parents who spoke at a Jan. 20 public meeting think that it is a bad idea for their children, partly because of the location and the size of the school. Michaelina Beam is a mother of a Grade 8 pupil at Centennial Public School who also has a daughter at W.J. Fricker Public School. “My personal feeling on it is no, I don’t think Chippewa should become a French Immersion Centre. It’s a beautiful big high school and you can accommodate a lot of high school students and it should stay a high school,” Beam suggested. Other parents echoed Beam's opinion that Chippewa should stay as secondary facility, because it already fits well as a high school, because of the size and central location. “My son will be graduating this year and hopefully going onto to Chippewa. I have a daughter who is in Grade 4 who actually has expressed interest to me in transferring to the French Program at Fricker. So my motivation wasn’t necessarily that there was any loyalty to Centennial,” Beam explained. “I just very strongly believe that it is a facility that’s central to the city as a JK-to-eight facility. It has a great gym, great tech facilities, and to remove the intermediate students from a facility like that and send them to a school that doesn’t have the same kind of facility just seems like a very bad decision”, Added, Michaelina Beam, Parent There were many concerned parents like Beam, who spoke to the Near North District School Board, about the possibility of Chippewa Secondary School becoming the only French immersion elementary school location in North Bay. Another concerned parent, Phillip Penna, spoke on behalf of is four year-old daughter who is attending Kindergarten at a French Immersion school in North Bay. Penna also argued that Chippewa should not become a French Immersion School mainly because of the size and location. “To centralize the French Immersion program is to isolate the French Immersion program. The academic standards and the academic results there are higher than an English program in this broad. So you want to expand that program you don’t expand it by centralizing it and making it inaccessible, you expand it by getting it into to more schools. So if you centralize you isolate when you isolate eventually it fails, its vitality is gone,” Penna explained. If the Near North District School Board turns Chippewa Secondary School into a French Immersion School, it will be the only school that will have the French Immersion Program. Children who attend French Immersion Programs in North Bay right now will only have one location to attend and if they live in Ferris, they will have to take a bus all the way to High Street, which will be a long way for a Kindergartener or Grade 1 pupils, opponents argue. Some children will have to ride the school bus two hours per day whicht isn’t ideal for young children. “The second reason why - particularly for us as parents of a small child - a big facility like this, Chippewa it’s just too big right and you’re asking a little child to live and exist in a building that is not meant for little children. It will have a negative educational experience for our daughter; small is what’s needed for small people,” Penna explained. Two more debates will take place before the final decision on the Chippewa Secondary/French Immersion plan. Near North District school will announce its final decision on Feb. 24. at a meeting in the office boardroom located on 963 Airport Rd. |
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