The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Flin Flon school trustees are asking their Creighton counterparts to reconsider a decision that limits options for French Immersion students. Earlier this month, the Creighton School Board voted to stop sending Creighton and Denare Beach students to Flin Flon's French Immersion program beyond Grade 8. That had Flin Flon trustees approving a motion of their own Tuesday, voting to write a letter seeking a negotiated reversal of the decision. 'We're just going to write a letter asking that we maybe sit down and talk with them and try to figure out a way that we can make it work,' said Trustee Murray Skeavington, board chairperson. Won't bother? Trustee Glenn Smith said the board worries that if Saskatchewan students cannot attend French Immersion beyond Grade 8, parents may not bother putting their children in the program at all. Creighton School Division, which does not offer French Immersion, has long reimbursed the Flin Flon division the cost of each Saskatchewan student enrolled in the program. French Immersion students from kindergarten to Grade 8 attend Ecole McIsaac School. After that, they have the option of continuing at Hapnot Collegiate. See 'Exist...' on pg. Continued from pg. The Creighton board's recent decision means that effective this September, no more Saskatchewan students will be funded to attend French Immersion at Hapnot. The only exceptions are the handful of students who were already scheduled to be at Hapnot this fall. They will continue to be funded until they graduate. In a statement to The Reminder, the Creighton board said Hapnot has difficulty offering enough courses to allow students to graduate with a French Immersion diploma. 'As a result, few if any of the Creighton students that we are paying French Immersion tuition for are graduating with a French Immersion diploma,' the board said. 'We were also informed that some of the students withdraw completely from French Immersion courses and choose to take their high school programming in English classes only.' The Creighton board said it is 'fully supportive of French Immersion' but 'if our high school students are not receiving a complete French Immersion program, or they are withdrawing from the French Immersion program, we feel those students should return to Creighton Community School (for high school). 'The public education funding that we are expending for French Immersion programming should ensure that students are receiving a French Immersion diploma, and if that is not the case, the funding would be better spent on providing services and programs to all students in Creighton Community School.' The Creighton board said it is open to discussing with the Flin Flon board 'any mutually agreeable alternative that would ensure that students receive a French Immersion diploma.' Trustee Smith acknowledged it would be 'difficult' for a Hapnot student to graduate with a French Immersion diploma, but the board needed to further research the matter to determine if it was in fact possible. As for the Flin Flon board's concern that the decision may deter parents from putting their kids in French Immersion, the Creighton board said it 'cannot presume to speak for the parents.' '...but we believe that it is important that parents are informed that it is unlikely their children will receive a French Immersion diploma given the current limitation of French Immersion programming at Hapnot,' the board said. There are currently six Saskatchewan students enrolled at Hapnot. Each costs the Creighton division $12,259 in tuition fees, for a combined total of $73,554.
