LBPSB CHAIRMAN MARCUS TABACHNIK SPEAKS TO THE MESSENGER

The Lester B.Pearson School Board is currently in the midst of its latest rounds of Major School Change consultations with the decisions to be handed down at their regular council meeting on Dec.21st, and public hearings will be held next week from Tuesday to Thursday, with the Eastern sector meeting to be held next Tuesday at LCCHS at 6:30.

We expect that local GB Chairs will speak at these hearings. The Board Admin and Commissioners are also busy reading the various briefs that have been streaming into Board offices in Dorval.

We caught up recently with Board Chairman Marcus Tabachnik on the phone last week who graciously gave us some of his valuable time in an exclusive taped interview for the Messenger to answer some questions about Major School Change.

The last few MSC’s were mainly the closing and merging of schools and selling off surplus buildings. This time, there are different dynamics at play, with the focus being on delivering better French services and curtailing the 20% loss of graduating Grade 6 students to non-LBPSB schools, with half of those going to English private schools, by possibly introducing new and exciting magnet programs to keep the students in the Pearson system.

Mr.Tabachnik says, “This time is a very different focus, we still have an excess of student spaces, we’re looking for ways to be creative and innovative and using our spaces, so when you talk about programs, it’s very complicated, because it’s just not a matter of transferring students and staff, and when you talk about programs, you talk about students who are in the system and students coming in to the system, the support services that we have, the staffing that we can do, the teachers, the people who have to be in place for whatever program would be in discussion, it involves transportation issues, it’s quite a bit more complex.

In terms of magnet programs, we’re getting a lot of advice through the briefs that are coming in, so it should be interesting as discussions unfold and with our public hearings coming up.”

In the MSC document, figures show that with about an equal number of schools providing both Immersion and Bilingual instruction, that there is twice the number of students enrolled in the Immersion program and the opinion out there is divided.

There has been some fear in certain areas of the Board that if the Board were to go all Immersion, that some are wondering if small immersion schools would stay open, keeping in mind that nearby Pearson Adult Centre is sniffing around looking for more space. “ We’re nowhere near the point of making of any decisions, and through the briefs, the advice seems to be somewhat split about people who want us to keep the choice for families and those who think we should move to a stronger French program, maybe only one program across the Board. We really have to do some serious thinking about what it would mean to have only one program and if we maintain two, how do we ensure that students get the possible education in both languages, so there’s a long way to go and a short amount of time to do it in. The advice that we’ve been getting through the briefs is somewhat mixed,” stated the Chairman.

This brought us to the next question, with Riverview and Verdun Elementary about even and in LaSalle, where there are more registered in bilingual by about 100 students, would the Board make exceptions in those areas where there is an equal amount of immersion and bilingual students, even if it was Immersion only across the rest of the Board. “Again we have to analyze whether we can move to a certain program for our community. If we look at a board wide basis, the immersion program has been maintaining its numbers, while our student population has been decreasing so there is a message there to the Board but that does not mean that it’s not a worthwhile program, so we have to look at ways to take into account the fact that it’s not an insignificant number of students in the bilingual program who are in that program, there are over 4000 students in the bilingual programs and that’s bigger than some school Boards, so we just can’t discount that, but for the Board to keep moving forward to provide cutting edge programs, more services, more support, we also have to be efficient in our operations, so it’s a tough balancing act we have to follow,” mentioned Mr. Tabachnik.

The secondary sector was also on the agenda in our interview and the Board is looking at the issue of more special programs as a way to stop the bleeding of 20 % of Grade 6 students leaving the Board entirely with half of those going into English private schools. Is it a case of bringing in more magnet programs like science and technology, or high-end computer technology, more trade-oriented courses? Again, the Chairman had an interesting answer.

Mr. Tabachnik mentioned, “Again, we’re getting some interesting suggestions, what we have been doing through this process is not only receiving advice and it also serves as a survey of our communities and what it is that they want for their kids, what do you think your children need, that we can provide or that we haven’t been providing, and how can we make our schools to continue to keep them relevant and make them attractive to those who are choosing to go elsewhere. New and innovative programs are things we want to see, they have to be long term sustainable programs, we don’t want to be going into today’s fashionable item, we want to get into something that can sustain itself through a change of community and staff, it has to be sustainable enough within a school environment, and if the current group who’s interested, graduates through it, that there will be more people who are interested in it.”

We were curious as to what the three eastern high schools had submitted in their briefs, which can be viewed publicly on the Board website, and only one is proposing a radical change. Lakeside in Lachine proposes that they become a total IBOMYP school, which would put them in the league of a magnet school like Royal West Academy, the danger being that they could take the cream off the top of other areas, with LCCHS being in the closest danger. LCCHS argues against this proposal saying that it would be to the detriment of community-based high schools and say that magnet programs are the best way to attract students.

Beurling Academy offers no new major magnet programs except to increase its French content and to allow the garage space in the back of the school to be used by the Pearson Adult Centre for some trade programs, which would only serve to accept more revenue producing students for the board.

We wondered also if the days of junior/senior split type schools are over. The Board Chairman doesn’t think so. He mentioned that they always have that option open to keep things efficient. There are arguments on both sides of the question but as Mr. Tabachnik said from a planning point of view, there is a critical mass in every school, and it’s nice to have a concentration of staff from a program point of view, but he also mentioned that from the other side, it’s nice to have older role models for the younger kids, and nice to have younger kids for the older kids to show leadership skills to.

He continues, “ We’re not looking for briefs to close schools, so if that’s a way to keep schools within communities, then it’s something we’re gonna have to consider, but I can’t give you a definitive yes or no, as that would presume that there are decisions made and there aren’t.”

Mr.Tabachnik also wanted to point out that the Board wants to see pre-k or kindergarten for 4 year-olds as a universal access program for all students in Quebec meaning that the Board has to look at that as a future need as well when we start looking at space in schools.