Francophone school a high priority

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This article was published 25/01/2021 (2071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Education Minister Cliff Cullen turned some heads on Thursday when he announced that the province is allocating more than $24 million for seven future land acquisition projects, which includes a K-12 Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine school in Brandon.

This update came as a pleasant surprise to DSFM Supt. Alain Laberge, who told the Sun on Friday that he and his colleagues have been working back-and-forth with the Manitoba government for years to get this project off the ground, with things ramping up in particular over the past couple months. 

“And now we are just awaiting confirmation on when we can start to acquire the land, get an architect and … work with the city to get permits and everything,” Laberge said.

While the superintendent couldn’t divulge any more behind-the-scenes details about the school, he said this update should serve as an encouraging sign for francophone families living in Brandon.

Currently, these parents only have one real option if they want to enrol their children in a fully French education, and that involves shipping them off to École La Source, located roughly 30 kilometres outside of town at CFB Shilo.

Otherwise, these families will have to make due with French immersion programming within the Brandon School Division, since the only other DSFM facilities in Westman are situated around 160 kilometres away in small communities like St. Lazare (École Saint-Lazare) and Laurier (École Jours de Plaine).

Local parent Paul Alexandre eventually determined that BSD’s French immersion offerings weren’t up to his standards, which is why his son Julien started attending École La Source in the fall of 2017.

While Alexandre is confident in saying that his son, who’s now in Grade 3, is getting a “superb” education under the DSFM umbrella, he admitted that École La Source’s out-of-town location presents a series of challenges.

Not only does the long travel time take its toll on his son and other students, but Alexandre reveals that this distance also prevents him from getting involved in the school community more directly.

“The moment they call me and they say ‘can you get here for this and this reason?’ I cannot do it right away,” he said. “It’s more than a half-hour drive and particularly in winter it becomes an issue.”

Outside of these travel issues, Laberge said École La Source also has very little room for expansion due to its proximity to Shilo, which presents a real problem since the school’s student population is almost at capacity by his count.

“It’s on an army base, so we really can’t put any portables out there, we can’t really expand,” he said. “We’re not leasing. It’s our school, we paid for it. But it’s not our place.”

Of course, none of these issues come as a big surprise to Laberge and his colleagues.

For years, DSFM officials have been consulting with members of Brandon’s French community, even going so far as to scout out locations for a possible school within the city after determining that the size of the local francophone population warranted it.

“Five years ago, we visited Assiniboine Community College because we heard they were moving, so there were talks with (Manitoba Education) at that time that maybe we could acquire that site,” Laberge said. “But it was way too big for our needs at that time and way too close to Shilo.”

With this recent funding announcement, Laberge hopes that the current Conservative government follows through with its 2019 promise to build 20 new schools across the next decade and moves this Brandon project along in an expedient manner.

“We would like to buy the land before June if possible, and then it usually takes between 18 to 24 months to build a school,” he said, mapping out his best-case scenario. “So if we can start as soon as possible then we can probably get into our new school by September 2024.”

However, Alexandre is not nearly as confident about this new DSFM school being a high priority for the province, given that Cullen did not provide any specific details about its construction during Thursday’s announcement, including a timeline.

And after years of similarly vague promises from the province about developing new infrastructure within city limits, Alexandre is not going to hold his breath.

“The central point is my frustration. That is my feeling. This announcement doesn’t do anything. It is just a press release,” he said. “And at the end of the day, let’s see boots on the ground. Let’s see some action. Let’s see some actual commitment with dates.”

Still, Alexandre would love to witness this project completed in a timely fashion, since that would allow his son to reap the benefits of attending a DSFM school within Brandon for at least a couple years before he graduates high school.

As such, Alexandre encourages other francophone parents in Brandon and the Westman region to put pressure on their elected officials when it comes to this subject, since he believes that it is the only way to guarantee that this project comes to fruition.

“I feel that the public … we have to keep their feet to the fire, and make sure that they stick with those promises,” he said.

DSFM currently operates 26 schools within the province of Manitoba, from Winnipeg to as far away as Thompson.

The division first established École La Source in Shilo back in 2004.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson