Approximately 40 francophone parents from Niverville and Ritchot gathered at École Régional Gabrielle-Roy in Île-des-Chênes (IDC) for a special meeting on May 30 hosted by the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (DSFM).
Guiding the meeting were the DSFM general director Alain Laberge and DSFM chairperson Bernard Lesage. On the agenda were discussion items surrounding the division’s decision to include new schools for Niverville and IDC in their five-year capital plan.
Currently, they said, École Gab-Roy is the only DSFM school in the region. Gab-Roy caters to 15 feeder schools from surrounding communities. But with 522 students in this school, which was built for 400, and with the addition of the eighth portable classroom this coming September, Gab-Roy has moved well beyond its capacity to offer an adequate learning environment and daycare facility.
When determining where a new school should be located, DSFM trustees take a number of criteria into consideration: population growth statistics, bus routes, stakeholders living in the area, and parental requests for a French school.
Based on their findings, Niverville rose to the top of the list, partially due to the fact that the community saw a 29 percent growth in population between 2016 and 2021. As well, census data suggests that there could be as many as 500 francophone students living in the community.
The fact that only 78 of these students attend École Gab-Roy likely has more to do with proximity than interest, suggesting that attendance would naturally increase for a more local school.
According to DSFM trustees, a new K–8 school in IDC comes in as a close second priority. If that were to happen, the plan would be to transition the existing École Gab-Roy into a regional high school.
With a new DSFM school underway in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood, consideration is also being given to changing the boundaries for francophone students of Grande Pointe, giving them the option of attending in Sage Creek instead of IDC.
Stéphanie Desjardins is a Niverville mom with two preschool children. She’s one of four local parents who submitted a letter to the DSFM in April of this year, asking for consideration of a Niverville school in their five-year capital plan.
They also collected a petition with 67 signatures, a number that impressed Lesage and Laberge. Desjardins says that she was told it was the biggest petition the DSFM had ever seen for a new school request. She was also told it was the reason that Niverville was bumped to the top of the list.
Desjardins attended the Tuesday night meeting at Gab-Roy. She was surprised to learn that students from Niverville have a one-hour ride on the bus to get to Gab-Roy. The same trip would be a ten-minute drive by car.
For the DSFM, these long-haul bus trips are among the factors that help determine when a community should have its own school.
“They said they like to have schools within the neighbourhood to help minimize the transport time, as some families will send their kids to English school just to avoid the transportation time involved if they choose a French school,” Desjardins says.
She was pleased to hear that the DSFM plans to use their schools for integrated programming, which would benefit the entire French community of the area, not just the students.
Desjardins has enrolled her son in a full-time preschool program at Gab-Roy this coming fall. She feels fortunate to be among the parents selected for this program.
Her conversation with Lesage at the end of Tuesday’s meeting left her feeling hopeful for a Niverville school, even though she knows it needs to first be approved by the province.
“He mentioned that… the chances of this project not happening are very low,” Desjardins says. “The need for this new school is there and the data proves it. It’s just a matter of time to see how long it might take before the project becomes a reality. Both of [my kids] will definitely benefit from having a DSFM school in town. They might have to start their education at Gabrielle-Roy, but if this new school is built within the next three to five years, both my kids will have the chance to attend. And knowing that I had a big part to play in bringing this school to our community makes it so special. I’m really excited to see how this project develops.”
