2 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday January 17, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com Ward 4 school accommodation ruling delayed until Feb. 4 By Tina Depko OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Halton District School Board trustees need more time before ruling on the controversial Ward 4 Oakville elementary schools accommodation issue. Recommendations were slated to be put before trustees next Wednesday, but at a special board meeting Thursday night, they unani- Get away from winter even if you can't get away TM mously agreed to wait until Feb. 4, saying there are still too many questions on the issue. The motion to delay was introduced by Ward 4 Oakville trustee Kathryn Bateman-Olmstead. She said many questions stemmed from points made at Wednesday's five-and-a-half hour marathon delegation evening. "I think from last night, what we heard and what we understood is that there are several questions to be answered," she said. As a result, trustees will be talking about the issue and proposed recommendations at a program and accommodation committee meeting that will be open to the public on Jan. 28 from 6-9 p.m. at the board office. "I don't want to continue tonight without allowing the director to go back and reflect on what he has heard and for us to stop and think, as well as have an opportunity to sit in committee and break it up," BatemanOlmstead said. The current recommendation on the table would see one single-track French immersion school (Ecole Forest Trail), two dual-track schools (Pilgrim Wood and proposed new school Palermo) and five single-track English schools. A second recommendation is that the HDSB implement a boundary study if either of the dual-track schools in Ward 4 Oakville exceeds a 60 per cent threshold for French immersion enrolment. 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For more information, visit call 905 6338808, E-mail events@dancescape.com, or visit our website at www.dancescape.com. 212 WYECROFT RD., UNIT 21/22, OAKVILLE www.dancescape.com/lessons Tel: (905) 633-8808, E-mail: events@dancescape.com Director of Education Wayne Joudrie said he is considering alterations to the first recommendation, known as Option B, following the delegation night. "The piece that drove me most crazy about last night (Wednesday) was the number of kids that are moved that have gone from either Abbey Lane or Pilgrim Wood to Pine Grove then up to Ecole Forest Trail and now potentially another place," he said. "I don't think that's defensible and certainly not something I would be proud of, so a variation on the Option B model... is to start with the primary division or start with something lower and grow the thing so the kids that have had the bop-bop-bop can stay at the school they are currently at." There may also be changes to the third recommendation related to the issue, which directs staff to hold an elementary school French immersion program review process, with an expected completion date of November 2009. One of the possible outcomes of this study would be a recommendation to create a consistent model of French immersion across the region. Oakville is the only community in the Halton region where single-track French immersion is offered by the HDSB. The remainder of schools offering French immersion in the region are dual track. Joudrie said a better alternative to a review might be to create a longterm French as a Second Language Advisory Committee. Such a committee has proved successful in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, he said. "If you engage the community on an ongoing basis, what happens is they get it that their position is just one of many positions and over time, they gain intelligence and wisdom so they can actually give the board good advice," he said. "I think perhaps a better solution would be a long-term, advisory committee." Joudrie proposed three possible options, labelled A, B and C, in a report on Ward 4 Oakville presented in December. He recently put forward Option B as the preferred choice. The other two choices presented by Joudrie were Option A, which proposed two single-track French immersion schools (Palermo and Ecole Forest Trail) and six singletrack English schools, or Option C, with three dual-track schools (Palermo, Pilgrim Wood and Ecole Forest Trail) and five single-track English schools. Joudrie presented his rationale for choosing Option B at Thursday's meeting. He said that busing and portable numbers played a role in his choice. "Option B is kind of the middle ground, the hybrid," he said. "It maintains Ecole Forest Trail, but has a group of students start dual track in two schools, being the new school See Education page 5