The CAQ government is preparing to use exceptional measures to solve overcrowding in French schools by turning an entire English school into a French one.
According to the Journal de Montreal, the building currently used by Riverdale High school in Pierrefonds will be transferred from the Lester B. Pearson School Board to the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Board for the next school year.
The current students will be transferred to other schools.
Education Minister Jean-François Roberge told the newspaper talks were already underway between the boards, but they had come to a standstill. He said he doesn't see the move as imposing a transfer as much as just accelerating the process.
Roberge said he was afraid at the current pace of negotiations the transfer would not be done in time for the 2019-2020 school year.
Riverdale currently has about half as many students enrolled as the building is capable of accommodating. The Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Board is operating more than 120 classes above capacity.
Section 477.1.1 of the Quebec Education Act gives the government the power to transfer school buildings between boards.
We are aware that this is a sensitive issue for some in community. Within the same neighbourhood some students were forced to stay home due to overcrowding while another was half empty. After reaching out to LBPSB, Minister @jfrobergeQc made a difficult but necessary decision.
— Christopher Skeete (@Cskeete) January 28, 2019
"On the recommendation of the Minister, the Government may, if it considers it advisable in the public interest and so as to foster effective and efficient management of the immovables belonging to school boards, order that the ownership of an immovable belonging to a school board be transferred to another school board so that the latter school board may establish an educational institution."
Premier François Legault has used section 477.1.1 himself, back in 2000 after he was appointed Minister of Education by Bernard Landry. At the time Legault introduced Bill 111, which combined students at Emily Carr Elementary School with students at Francesca Cabrini Elementary School (now Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary) in order to transfer one of the buildings from the English Montreal School Board to the Commission Scolaire de Montreal.
Last week students enrolled in French welcoming classes at the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Board began using classrooms at Riverdale, part of an earlier agreement that will see French students attending classes at the Pierrefonds High School and Lindsay Place High School in Pointe-Claire.