Overcrowding has parents lining up overnight to enroll kids in Edinburgh Elementary

Line-up outside Edinburgh Elementary persists Overcrowding at an English elementary school in Montreal West has parents spending the weekend in their cars hoping to guarantee a spot.

With overcrowding at the school a major concern that’s sent the English Montreal School Board scrambling for solutions, parents lined up for hours outside Edinburgh Elementary on Saturday to get their kid a spot.

Parent Mike Picciuto lives just down the street from the Montreal-West school but ended up sleeping outside Edinburgh to make sure he made the cut. He ended up being first in line, but was soon joined by dozens of others.

“I was very uncomfortable last night, with metal pieces in my back and stuff, so I spent about two-and-a-half hours last night building myself a bed and now I’m comfortable and warm,” he said. “We started trying to figure out a way to organize everybody so somebody came up with a board, another went to the pharmacy to buy these green boards (to number their spot).”

Some parents brought coffee, others fresh bagels, in an effort to lighten the mood. Alexandrea Struck said that’s the kind of community atmosphere that makes the school so attractive.

“We’re a family, the first person in line is a former Edinburgh classmate of mine,” she said. “They’re strangers and they’ve already rallied together, they’re organizing themselves.”

Just two kindergarten classmates with a total of 38 students will be admitted to the school next year, with priority going to those who already have siblings at Edinburgh.

Earlier this week, parents met with school and EMSB officials to discuss the overcrowding issue at the school – there are 400 students at a facility built for just over 300. The crowding has become such an issue that some students are being tutored in the teachers’ lounge due to a lack of classroom space.

A petition calling for the school to add temporary modular classrooms has been signed by 400 parents hoping to stop the lineups from happening for a third consecutive year next year.

The lineups have become a tradition at Royal Vale, which is in demand due to its offering classes from kindergarten to grade 11 and its enriched math and science program, but that’s little comfort to Michal Muallem.

“I was in tears that we have to spend the weekend here,” he said. “My son is with a babysitter… just talking about it is very upsetting.”