Over the past month, a  campaign has been circulating about French Immersion and the Glen Abbey elementary schools community. Educational issues are often debated at an emotional level. However, if the debate about accommodation for French Immersion students in Ward 4 is to be open, honest, transparent and balanced, it is critical that the debate be based on fact, rather than myth and innuendo.
As members of the École Forest Trail Accommodation Committee, we would like to provide all the school communities in Ward 4 and Glen Abbey with the facts..
 
Myth #1: The French Immersion community in Ward 4 wants to force English students out of their schools, and take over a Glen Abbey School.
 
Fact: Of all the rumours currently circulating regarding the French Immersion accommodation issue, this is perhaps the most insidious. Let's set the record straight: the parents of French Immersion students in Ward 4  have never asked for any school south of Upper Middle Road to be closed or converted to a French Immersion Centre. When the French Immersion community asks to keep French Immersion (FI) single track, we are not asking for a particular school.  We simply want to continue having our children's program delivered in the method we chose when they entered Grade 1 and that has been proven to be successful academically. We are perplexed as to why this rumour of wanting a school in Glen Abbey continues, but it needs to stop.  A simple call to the Halton District School Board (HDSB) can confirm that this rumour is false.
 
Myth #2: It costs the community more to provide single track French Immersion schools.
 
Fact: French Immersion is an asset to the Halton District School Board. French Immersion students do not pull funding away from other programs. Under a Federal Government grant to the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Halton District School Board receives $337 in additional funding for every FI primary student in Grades 1-3. In turn, the HDSB adds these additional funds to their general revenues for the benefit of all educational programming in the region.
 
Myth #3: Bussing to French Immersion schools costs too much
 
Fact: This myth is perpetuated by a lack of understanding of the school bus system. The buses going to École Forest Trail are the third shift in bussing, after the high schools and the other Elementary schools. Subsequently, École Forest Trail starts and finishes school well after the non-French Immersion schools. Each bus to École Forest Trail is full and carries about 70 students. It's interesting to note that the enrolment of all three schools in Glen Abbey has been boosted for many years by students bussed from north of Upper Middle Road (while their schools were being built).  Environment and cost have never been raised as an issue when it helped the Glen Abbey schools - so why is there a double standard being applied when French Immersion children are bussed?
 
Ultimately, the parents of children attending Forest Trail in northwest Oakville want the same thing any parent would want for their children:  quality programming and academic excellence. In our case, that is best provided in a single-track French Immersion program. We wouldn't expect any parent, no matter what education they choose for their children, to apologize for wanting what's best for them, nor will we.
 
Neither will we try to take anything away from others in the Halton Public School system or spread misinformation about them to get our way. 
 James Arndt
Colleen Bailey
Brenda Cavers
Laura Klemenchuk
Susan Sheppard
École Forest Trail Accommodation Committee