by NOEMI LOPINTO

Quebec’s ongoing language debate has temporarily landed in suburban St-Eustache, complete with media saturation, backpedalling bureaucrats and irate parents. The English immersion program of a small elementary school, École Jacques-Labrie, is now facing dissolution—and opponents are crying dirty politics.

Johanne Beaulieu, 36, chair of the Jacques-Labrie’s governing board, says the program is extremely popular with both students and parents, and the reasons for shutting it down are purely political. “English is a taboo subject in this province,” says Beaulieu. “For 10 years the Ministry of Education has tolerated us, but their first priority is French language development. The Commission [de la Seigneurie-des-Milles-Îles] knows we have an exceptional program, but they don’t want it to spread. Many parents want a school like ours, and they could have one, but for Bill 101.”

Jacques-Labrie has 290 students and a staff of 10 educators. The program is one year long and available for students entering the sixth grade only. The program divides the school year in half: five months intensive ESL (English as a Second Language) curriculum, and another five months—taught in French—fulfilling the Ministry’s pedagogical requirements for math, French, science, MRE, arts and crafts and physical education.

The problems began in October 2002, when an annual report issued by the Commission recommended dissolving the program, citing the program’s singularity as being out of sync with other primary school systems, which run in two three-year cycles (Cycle I, for instance, covers Grades 1–3, Cycle II Grades 4–6). Michel Laliberté, the media contact for the Commission, says the population of children in the area is dwindling, and argues that English immersion or enrichment classes could be offered in other elementary schools. “The school would stay open but lose its status as a vocational school,” says Laliberté. “It hasn’t been recognized officially by the Commission as a special project since 2000. For many reasons, the Commission proposes that by 2004–05, all the kids in sixth grade be back in their neighbourhood schools.”

Since the controversy came out at the end of the holidays, TVA, TVQ, CBC and most of the local newspapers have been all over Johanne Beaulieu. A TV crew shot some footage at the school on Wednesday, January 8, and journalists have started calling the Commission regularly—which has led to some terse exchanges between the Commission and school administrators. Jacques-Labrie’s principal, Yolande Cormier, says all is fair in love and war.

“They were surprised, that’s for sure,” says Cormier, of the Commission. “I don’t think they expected the amount of interest it generated. The Commission called us and told us to keep things nice. I’m not worried. I think this will be good for us in the long run.”

Twenty-one elected commissioners and members of the Commission’s administrative council will hold an open forum with the public on January 22 and come to a decision on the program’s future. Beaulieu expects a full house. “We still have a fighting chance,” she says. “The commissioners make decisions based on deficits, finances and statistics, not the needs of the children. They told me they didn’t want a war. I told them it wasn’t a war—I just want the school to stay open.” :