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UGDSB Elementary French Review

For information on the Upper Grand DSB’s Secondary French Review, please visit the UGDSB Secondary French Review webpage.

Final Decision

At the Board meeting on May 24, 2016 trustees approved the remaining recommendations on the UGDSB French Review, which had been endorsed at the May 10th Business Operations meeting. A list of all of the approved recommendations is posted below under documents.

Trustees received the Report of the French Review Committee – 2015 at the Business Operations Committee meeting on January 12, 2016. At the board meeting on January 26, 2016 trustees directed staff to create a plan for four public information sessions on the UGDSB French Review. Trustees approved several recommendations of the Report of the French Review Committee, however they moved that recommendations related to the proposed enrolment cap and change in instructional time (recommendations #3, #4, #12, #13, #14, and #16) come back to the May 10th Business Operations meeting for consideration by the Board.

Information sessions were held in North Wellington, Dufferin. Guelph, and Centre Wellington throughout the month of March. These meeting provided the public with information on the problems, alternative and recommendations described in the report. Feedback on the proposed recommendations was also collected at each meeting. Please see the meeting schedule below for a copy of the presentation slides.

At the Business Operations meeting on April 12, 2016 the Human Resources Department provided an update on the implementation of recommendations #5-#11.

Public Feedback and Frequently Asked Questions

Feedback on the French Review was collected from February 10 – April 15, 2016.  Feedback received up to and including April 15, 2016 is posted below, along with the Q&A sessions and Sticky Note feedback from the public meetings as well as a list of Frequently Asked Questions.  For more information on the review, please refer to the background and documents sections at the bottom of this page.

Public Information Session Schedule

DATE      TIME     LOCATION
  Wednesday February 24, 2016  
POSTPONED DUE TO
INCLEMENT WEATHER		 7-9pm Centre Wellington DHS
905 Scotland Street
Fergus		 Cafetorium
 Thursday, March 3, 2016 7-9pm Wellington Heights SS
405 Sligo Road East
Mount Forest		 Cafetorium
Thursday, March 10, 2016 7-9pm Westside SS
300 Alder Street
Orangeville		 Theatre
 Wednesday, March 30, 2016 7-9pm Centennial CVI
289 College Avenue West
Guelph		 Cafetorium
 Thursday, March 31, 2016 7-9pm Centre Wellington DHS
905 Scotland Street
Fergus		 Cafetorium

Background

The Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) strives to increase all students’ ability to communicate and interact with growing confidence and proficiency in French. Learning a second language has shown to have a number of benefits to students, including enhancing critical and creative thinking abilities, increasing their understanding of other cultures and providing a career advantage both in Canada and abroad.

The board currently offers Core French and French Immersion (FI) at the elementary and secondary level.

FI has been offered by the UGDSB for the past 40 years and has seen incredible success, with enrolment increasing steadily each year. The success and popularity of the FI program is not just a local phenomenon, as increasing enrolment is happening across the province and country as well.

With this success, however, comes pressure to manage the sustainability of the program.

The increased growth rate of the FI program in the UGDSB has led to significant pressure accommodating students, multiple boundary reviews, and difficulty hiring enough qualified teachers. It has also resulted in increased transportation costs and managing equity of access and opportunities to all UGDSB students.

To address these pressures, the board created a French Review Committee to develop and evaluate options to help mitigate and manage these issues and ensure the sustainability of all English and FI track programs. Trustees endorsed the formation of the committee on January 13, 2015. The Terms of Reference for the French Review Committee were approved by the Board on March 31, 2015.

The committee’s aim was to generate a range of recommendations by December 31, 2015, to the board for consideration.

When selecting committee members, every effort was made to ensure there is equitable representation of the board’s geographic diversity. Members include parents, trustees, principals and teachers, board staff, Superintendents of Education, and union presidents.

The committee met a number of times to review and analyze data on enrolment trends, funding, staff hiring, instructional strategies and more.

The French Review Committee also asked for parents’ input. Parents and guardians were invited to complete a short, confidential survey, sharing their thoughts on French Language instruction within UGDSB schools. Survey results formed part of the French Review Committee’s final report, and a summary of responses can be found under the documents section below.

Documents