MONTREAL -- A Montreal school board says it will review its enrolment process after dozens of parents slept overnight in frigid weather outside four of its elementary schools to secure their children a coveted kindergarten spot.
English Montreal School Board spokesman Michael Cohen said today camp-outs have been common for decades outside one elementary school, but the board will take a fresh look at the practice now that it is spreading.
Cohen says that after years of declining enrolment, the school board serving anglophone Montrealers will take in at least 250 additional students next fall compared with the current school year.
He says the schools that are in high demand offer a strong bilingual program allowing graduates to function in French and English, giving them an edge over their unilingual peers.
Cohen says that despite criticism that the system is unfair to those who don't have the means to camp outside a school, it is supported by parents.
He says people have long suggested a lottery process for enrolment at the school where camp-outs have been the norm for decades -- Royal Vale -- but the idea was repeatedly rejected by the school's governing board.
