École LaVérendrye's Milieu program continues but its catchment area is made smaller by adding a new Milieu program to Robert H. Smith. The changes outlined below would be phased in over several years. Details include the following:
- École LaVérendrye student population would be reduced by making the catchment area for the school smaller.
- A Milieu program would replace the Dual Track French immersion program at Robert H. Smith to account for those students attending (or who would attend) École LaVérendrye, but now fall outside of the catchment area. Students already enrolled in École LaVérendrye and their younger siblings could remain at École LaVérendrye for the duration of their Nursery to grade 6 schooling.
- Students in the English program at Robert H. Smith would be relocated to other schools (e.g., Grosvenor, Queenston, Brock Corydon).
- Students in the Dual Track French Immersion program at Robert H. Smith could choose to switch to the Milieu French Immersion program. If they choose to continue with the Dual Track French Immersion program, they would be relocated to one of the other Dual Track French Immersion schools (J.B. Mitchell or Riverview).
- Students attending Earl Grey School would be unaffected.
If this were proposed years ago, it may have been a viable solution and would have avoided the urgency we're faced with today. But it does nothing to address the immediate capacity concerns of LaVérendrye.
- It will take years for LaVérendrye's enrollment to be reduced following a catchment change, since existing students and siblings will be able to continue at LaVérendrye if they wish.
- At least 155 students in Robert H. Smith's English program will be uprooted from their school community and dispersed to other schools. The remaining 316 students in the French program will be affected by the dismantling of their school community.
- Dual track immersion programs at Robert H. Smith and J.B. Mitchell have been experiencing their own capacity issues in recent years. There's a real possibility that Robert H. Smith families wishing to keep the dual track experience may need to have their children bused 6 km away to Riverview instead of walking to either of two schools in their neighborhood.
- Most LaVérendrye students live within a few blocks of the school. In order for the catchment change to have any realistic impact, Winnipeg School Division has indicated that the new dividing line will need to be drawn at Stafford Ave... only two blocks from LaVérendrye. This means that families just west of Stafford will need to bus their children to Robert H. Smith instead of walking to the school they can see from their front yards.
- Even though Winnipeg School Division indicates that LaVérendrye families living in the new catchment area will be able to continue attending LaVérendrye, they have also indicated that bus service may no longer be available because they will now be considered out-of-catchment. This may force some LaVérendrye families to uproot their children from relationships they've forged over the years, and try to fit into a new school.
This solution is unnecessarily disruptive to the nearly 500 students who attend Robert H. Smith today, will force several LaVérendrye families to leave their school community behind, and will take years for the catchment change to reduce enrollment.
LaVérendrye students need a solution now for the 2015/16 school year.
