EMSB plans to open new school, renovate Westmount Park Elementary

CTV Montreal: New EMSB school The English Montreal School Board is opening a new school and is renovating a badly outdated one.

The EMSB is planning to move students and open a new elementary school in NDG, and do so for next year.

At a school board meeting Wednesday the council voted in favour of two significant recommendations.

The first is a plan to open a new French immersion elementary school in NDG for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Students attending existing French immersion schools at the EMSB take all their courses in French in Kindergarten, grade one, and grade two but at the new school, that program would be extended so that children will only begin taking courses in English in grade five.

"This would be the first time that we have what we call the Francais plus program which is full immersion for Kindergarten, grade one, two, three, and four, and then for grade five and six it would be 50 percent English, 50 percent French," said commissioner Joseph Lalla.

The board plans to open the new school at 4050 Coronation Ave., which is currently used by Outreach, and Focus high school, using space at Centennial College. Both have small classes and focus on students who often arrive with academic, social, or behavioural problems.

The board approved a plan to move those students to James Lyng High School in St. Henri, which it says has better facilities.

Renovating Westmount Park

The EMSB also approved a plan to temporarily close Westmount Park Elementary school for two years as part of a $12.5 million project.

The building is in need of major renovations, and needs new plumbing and electrical wiring.

The 700 students at that school will be shifted to Marymount International in NDG and St. John Bosco School in Ville Emard, which was closed in 2012.

Marymount is about 3 km away, while St. John Bosco is about 5 km southwest of Westmount Park.

Both proposals have to will be consulted by the schools involved and parents' committees, which must submit their feedback to the EMSB council by January 8.