A Brossard man says his youngest son has been at home while all his friends start kindergarten this week, because the school his three elder siblings all went to has no room for him.
Ray Kaed-Bay contacted CJAD 800 via yourstory@cjad.com. He says the Rose-des-Vents school became a big part of his family's life over the years: his eldest child started going there the year it opened, and has since moved on to secondary school. He has two other children who go there now, and his family even purchased their home, in the Dix-30 area of the south-shore suburb, to be closer to the school.
But he says this June, as his son Romel was preparing to start Kindergarten, the family got a nasty surprise.
"He was 72nd on the waiting list [to get a place in the school]", he said. By the time the first day of school arrived last week, Romel was still on the waiting list, albeit in the number-two place.
Kaed-Bay says his family has been in touch with the Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin all summer "trying to resolve this thing." But he says the alternatives the school has offered him aren't doable.
"They offered us a different school," he explained, "and the thing is, the bus time for the other school, and the pickup point and the dropoff point for the bus, doesn't match at all our schedule."
He placed blame jointly on the CSMV and the provincial Education Ministry, who he says seemed not to respond to the area's booming population growth.
Kaed-Bay said, "One of my kids, a few years back, he was six years old, and he asked, 'Daddy, are all these condo residents going to join my school?' And I said 'of course'. A kid was expecting more people at this school, but not the management...unfortunately."
In a statement, the Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin said that the schoolboard is "currently growing fast, and facing logistical challenges on the territory of the Rose-des-Vents school.
The child mentioned ... is in the next on the list of children who can be repatriated to their local school, according to our local policies."