N.B. superintendent talks pilot project, school lunch program promise

CTV’s Derek Haggett outlines the changes coming to New Brunswick classrooms this fall.

Anglophone East School District Superintendent Randy MacLEAN has a lot on his plate with just a week to go before classes begin.

A new pilot project introduced by the province in June will see two professional development days a month at 37 anglophone schools, 11 of them in MacLEAN’s district.

Education Minister Claire Johnson said the goals of the pilot program are to improve literacy and numeracy scores while fighting chronic absenteeism.

MacLEAN said he’s ecstatic the idea has come to fruition.

“This initiative, this pilot project, is a direct response to improve student achievement. That’s what this is about. It’s about student achievement,” said MacLEAN.

So far, the district has received very minimal negative feedback.

But some are worried about childcare commitments on the extra days off.

Amy Brown has two children attending Petitcodiac Regional School this fall, one of the participating schools.

She’s concerned her kids won’t be doing any work on the extra days off and her job will keep her from being home on those days.

“I mean, I still have bills to pay and teachers do as well and I understand 100 per cent their position and their responsibilities. Is there maybe not a week, maybe March Break?” said Brown. “Why can’t they pick a couple of those days to do the extra PD days?”

No free lunch

During last fall’s election campaign in New Brunswick, Susan Holt’s Liberals promised a new school lunch program for all students.

That promise has been put on hold, at least for now.

Department of Education spokesperson Diana Chávez said its priority for the upcoming school year is an expansion of the school breakfast program to all public schools in New Brunswick.

“We will take the lessons we learn from this expansion, the lessons learned in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island when they launched their respective lunch programs, and the findings of the Auditors General in those jurisdictions and apply them to the rollout of the school lunch program in the 2026-27 school year to ensure it can [be] accessed by all public school students from day one,” said Chávez in an email.

Chávez said the province committed $19 million for a school lunch program in the 2025-2026 budget that was released in March.

“Some of this funding will be used to prepare for the rollout of the lunch program when it is ready, including the necessary acquisition of and/or upgrades to equipment. The rest will be reallocated within the department,” said Chávez.

MacLEAN said the province wants to get it right.

“From time from election, moving into forming government and now putting it into place for September was a very ambitious target,” he said. “They are taking the time to reflect and ensure that we do it correctly and not swiftly.”

Overcrowding

One of the biggest recent issues within the district has been overcrowding at Moncton High School.

Built just over a decade ago, the school’s capacity is supposed to be around 1,200 students but it’s been around 1,600 for the past few years.

There’s currently 17 portables at the school and MacLEAN is keeping his promise of not adding anymore.

Some students from Dieppe living in the Moncton High School catchment area are being transporting to Riverview High School to help ease the strain.

“The growth in Dieppe continues, we’ve just addressed it in a different way,” said MacLEAN.

Staffing

The Anglophone East School District currently has around 20,520 students, up a little bit from last year.

This time last year, MacLEAN said they were north of 100 vacant teaching positions.

“As of yesterday there were 17. So we are in a much better place this year than we were in our previous two years,” said MacLEAN. “That’s incredibly positive.”

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