French immersion changes in N.B. town frustrate mayor, families

The mayor of Grand Bay-Westfield, N.B., says local changes to French immersion this fall will hurt students and the community.

Late French immersion students who attend River Valley Middle School in Grand Bay-Westfield will move this September to Barnhill Memorial School in Saint John, roughly a 25-minute drive southeast.

All early French Immersion classes in the area will also move to Westfield School, beginning with Grade 1. French immersion at Grand Bay Primary and Inglewood schools will phase out.

“Any kind of change like that with educational programming in a community is a big deal,” said Brittany Merrifield, mayor of Grand Bay-Westfield, in an interview.

“Anything that reduces the possibility of students joining into that kind of educational programming, which this decision will do, is very concerning to us.”

She says changes could affect the growth of Grand Bay-Westfield.

“People are going to say, ‘I may not want to move there because they don’t have French immersion programming within their community.’”

In a statement, the Anglophone South School District says 12 students are registered for late French immersion at River Valley Middle School this fall. The school district says the number of registrations wasn’t enough to warrant a class, adding that local interest in the program had “declined” over the past several years.

“This is a decision I believe could’ve been managed in a different way,” says Merrifield. “Potentially, by doing split late French immersion classes, which would save the district some money but also keep our children in the community.”

Parents who support French immersion in Grand Bay-Westfield say families who were counting on a local option for late immersion now face a difficult decision.

“They have to make [the] choice of either keeping them in English [Prime] or sending them into Saint John,” says Suzanne Hohmann, a community volunteer at local schools. “Some of the kids would have to travel round trip over 80 kilometres a day to attend school in Saint John.”

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development referred all questions on the subject to the Anglophone South School District on Thursday.

Green Party leader David Coon says Minister Bill Hogan has an obligation to maintain French immersion programs already in place already the province, including Grand Bay-Westfield.

“That requires the intervention of the minister, in terms of showing leadership, to ensure those French immersion programs are in place or sustained,” says Coon, adding access should be a priority for areas without French immersion programs.

Liberal MLA Francine Landry says another solution may have been achieved if Grand Bay-Westfield town council had been informed about enrolment challenges prior to the school district’s decision.

“Consultation should’ve been done properly with the parents, and with the municipality and the community,” says Landry.

Mayor Merrifield has invited Derek O’Brien, the Anglophone South School District’s superintendent, to next month’s town council meeting. Merrifield says she also has questions for the provincial government.

“What is the governance surrounding decisions like this, that impact a community and the families within a community so profoundly? When you talk about moving education programming out of a community and you haven’t even discussed it with the community, with the mayor, council, or any kind of leadership … that’s a big question,” says Merrifield.

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