DARTMOUTH, N.S. -- Newbridge Academy, a sport-centric school that closed last June, is getting a major makeover.
Renovations at the school are aimed at getting it ready for the new school year in the fall, when it will re-open as a brand new French high school.
A principal and vice principal have been hired and inside, a new gymnasium and cafeteria are being built.
HRM Coun. Tony Mancini says adding a new school is long overdue.
"We have 10,000 Francophones and Acadiens in HRM," Mancini said. "There are over 50,000 people who are bilingual in HRM."
Caroline Arsenault has two children who attend French elementary school in Halifax.
She says this school will be good for Dartmouth but her home area of peninsular Halifax is still without its own French high school. The nearest one is in Bedford.
"We know that there is still overcrowding and our school board doesn't have the solution for it yet," Arsenault said.
Arsenault would need permission to send her children here and, if successful, she'd have to find her own transportation.
If a student attends a French school from another area, then a parent is responsible for their own busing for their child to the school.
Despite the transportation obstacles, Arsenault hopes it causes momentum and leads to another French high school being built in Halifax.
