On Tuesday morning, there was a lot of energy in the school yard of Leonardo Da Vinci Academy in Rivieres-des-Prairies. “I feel like when the kids walk in and they see the balloons and they hear the music, it kind of eases their nerves a little bit,” Amanda Daloia, a parent, said. It’s the first day of school, and it’s a big moment for students and staff. “We can just open our arms to them, welcome them back,” Nadia Sammarco, principal at Leonardo Da Vinci Academy, said. “We are building their core memories for the rest of their lives.” The start of this school year comes amidst a provincial election campaign with parties pitching their platforms. The CAQ has once again promised to extend Bill 101 to adult education and vocational schools. It’s a major concern for the EMSB. “When we talk about applying Bill 101 to our adult ed and losing those tuition fees, it’s to put it mildly, death by a thousand cuts,” Pietro Mercuri, EMSB commissioner, said. If the French Language Charter is extended to adult ed, the school board says that would mean fewer students and a big financial hole. “That accounts for millions of dollars, that go into our budget,” Mercuri said. CTV News contacted the CAQ for comment, but did not hear back. “To our knowledge, at this point, the French school system does not have enough space to physically take in all of the students that we could possibly lose,” Mercuri said. He says the money that comes from adult ed and vocational schools is used to help elementary and high schools. The Quebec English School Boards Association plans to conduct a province-wide blitz to meet as many candidates as possible who are running in ridings with adult vocational centres. The EMSB says it will be leading the charge on this because, for them, this is the number one issue in this election campaign.
