Willingdon governing board votes to create new campus for older students
It's now up to the English Montreal School Board to decide whether a popular elementary school in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce will get a second campus.
Willingdon Elementary, a French immersion school, is at 90 per cent capacity. Its governing board wants to move older students about two kilometres away — to the former St. Ignatius of Loyola school, at the corner of Somerled and Coronation avenues.
On Tuesday, the Willingdon governing board voted unanimously to send its proposal to the board — despite the fact not everyone in the school community thinks it's a good idea.
"We never want to see parents having to camp out to have the 'privilege' of attending our wonderful school," said Kathleen Usher, a governing board member, in an email.
"It is their right as NDGers to come here and we need to expand to be able to welcome them."
According to the proposal, all students would arrive at Willingdon Elementary, then the grades five and six students would be bused to the second location.
The EMSB will consider the idea at a meeting Wednesday night.
Plans too rushed, parents say
A group of parents has started an online petition against the plan, saying the governing board's expansion plans are too rushed.
"If you're radically going to change the nature of this school, we need time to think," said Elizabeth Hunt, a parent who started the petition. It has about 125 signatures so far.
Some parents are worried that by splitting up students, the school will lose its sense of community.
But others in the school community think that with more space, the students will be able to thrive.
"In the States they have the idea of a middle school and that's what we're kind of looking at," said Lara Belinsky, a governing board member at Willingdon Elementary.
The school's principal, Carmen Nicolas, said the governing board did its best based on the time frame given by the EMSB.
