Students, parents and staff formed human chains around several English Montreal School Board schools on Thursday morning as a show of support against the forced transfer of several facilities to an overcrowded French board.
“The most unfortunate part is I believe everyone dropped the ball on this one. Nobody actually took leadership on this one,” said Antonio Zaruso, a parent representative on the EMSB who has a daughter attending General Vanier, one of the schools set to be transferred. “It’s all fine and dandy to say we can blame this over that one, but at the end of the day, all parties involved, from the education minister to both school boards have failed us miserably.”
The transfer of General Vanier, Gerald McShane and John Paul 1 schools to the Commission Scolaire Pointe de L’Ile were announced last week by Quebec Education Jean-Francois Roberge during a French-language radio interview. Officials at the EMSB said they were given no prior warning before the announcement.
EMSB officials said they had worked to find a compromise to help out the French board, including sharing classroom space, but those measures were rejected by the minister and CSPL. During an emergency meeting the day after the announcement the EMSB said it would do what it can to stop the transfers, including legal action.
Zaruso said parents plan to keep fighting to keep the schools as part of the EMSB.
“Next year, we’re definitely going to be doing this all over again with more arguments and more stories, so this story is far from over today,” he said.
