In the wake of the announcement that the provincial government is going to seize Riverdale High School and transfer it to a French school board, only a handful of parents showed up at a board meeting to discuss the issue.
About a dozen parents attended Monday's Lester B. Pearson School Board meeting, where the board reassured those in attendance that it's unlikely that other schools will be closed.
Board Chair Noel Burke said the board was informed in December that the province was invoking Article 477.1 to seize Riverdale and give the building to the Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys, however the board chose not to inform the public at the time in hopes of convincing the province to do something else.
"We've had a long-term planning committee in place for the last 18 months looking at the consolidation of our high school network. It's not the only school with low enrolment. It has the lowest of the high schools. We have had assurances from the minister's cabinet that he will not exercise [Article] 477 again on this board," said Burke.
About 440 students attend Riverdale High School, which has a capacity of about 950 students. Those students will be sent to other high schools starting next year.
The provincial CAQ government said the move to transfer the school was necessary to help students in need -- in this case, the thousands of new students at the Marguerite Bourgeoys school board.
MNA Christopher Skeete said the CAQ's long-term goal of removing school boards will return power to the community.
"Actually it was the francophone sector that was seeing discrimination because we actually had students who couldn't access education. Some of them had to stay home because there wasn't enough space in Marguerite Bourgeoys classrooms," said Skeete.
Riverdale has been leasing space to the Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys for students taking Introduction to French courses.
The board had also asked the CAQ government to allow the new students, most of them immigrants and refugees, to be given permission to attend English public schools.
Bill 101 forces children whose parents were not educated in English in Canada to attend French public schools, but the law permits exemptions to be made on humanitarian grounds.
"This is about us treating people equally. And on the other side Riverdale was at about 50 percent capacity. It would have been disingenous to try to not address this question directly. There was an infrastructure called Riverdale High that was available and the Minister saw fit to act to save quality education in the region for all Quebecers," said Skeete.
Greg Kelley, the Liberal critic for relations with the English-speaking community, said the school closure is irresponsible. and he says it contravenes exactly what the CAQ says it is about as far as education goes.
