A Montreal school board says it will review its enrolment process after dozens of parents slept overnight in frigid weather outside four of its elementary schools to secure their children a coveted kindergarten spot.

As has become tradition, parents lined up for days to ensure their children would get a space in kindergarten at overcrowded EMSB schools in Montreal West, Cote de Neiges-Notre Dame de Grace, and Cote St. Luc.

When schools opened early Monday morning, parents who had lined up for days at Royal Vale, Edinburgh, and Merton elementary schools filed in to grab a spot for their child.

EMSB spokesperson Michael Cohen said today camp-outs have been common for decades outside one elementary school, but the board will take a fresh look at the practice now that it is spreading.

Cohen says that after years of declining enrolment, the school board serving anglophone Montrealers will take in at least 250 additional students next fall compared with the current school year.

He says the schools that are in high demand offer a strong bilingual program allowing graduates to function in French and English, giving them an edge over their unilingual peers.

All three French immersion schools have been operating over or near their limit for several years, and have turned away children if they did not have room.

Another French immersion school in the district, Willingdon Elementary in NDG, is operating at about 90 percent capacity, and has a history of opening up extra kindergarten classes to deal with surges in enrolment.

In the EMSB's immersion program, all classes are in French in kindergarten, grade one, and grade two, and then half of classes are in French and half in English.

At all elementary schools priority goes to younger siblings of children who are already in the school, and then whatever space is left over is available for others.

But many parents who lined up said they would rather some other system be set up, such as a lottery.

"They do need to try to make this a little bit easier on the parents. I don't think that it's fair to have parents camp out in -15 or colder, freezing rain last night, snowing on Saturday. I don't think it's fair to the parents. They need to do something about it," said Rita Cohen, who had spent days at Royal Vale.

The spokesperson for the EMSB, Mike Cohen (not related to Rita), said the idea was up for discussion.

"Each school has a governing board and we would certainly welcome comments from the respective boards over the next few months," said Cohen. "That's something our administration will study."

Overcrowding is not only a problem for the EMSB. Many Commission Scolaire de Montreal elementary schools in western Montreal are also overcrowded, in part because one school needed extensive renovations to deal with mould and so was closed.

How to cope with overcrowding

The EMSB is now asking three schools in the district how they wish to cope with overcrowding.

There is a school building in the area -- the former St. Ignatius of Loyola, located at the corner of Somerled Ave. and Coronation St. -- that has been used by years as a special program for teens at risk of dropping out of high school.

The board now wants to another elementary school to take over the building as an annex.

Last week parents and officials at Edinburgh discussed the plan, and this week groups at Willingdon Elementary will do the same, with parents and staff at Merton being next.

At the Edinburgh meeting, many people said they did not like the idea of opening an annex and sending children in some grades to another building. They expressed a preference for keeping the school as is, or adding modular classrooms to the grounds.

After hearing from committees at the three schools, the EMSB is going to make a decision at its board meeting on Feb. 20.

With files from The Canadian Press.