Still no site for school

It’s been almost a year since the Lester B. Pearson School Board publicly announced Quebec has granted them about $8 million to build a new elementary school in the burgeoning off-island. While construction was expected to start this past spring and have the 450-student capacity facility open during the 2009-2010 school year, a suitable site has yet to be found or offered leaving parents frustrated and wondering what’s going on.

To that end, a group of concerned parents from the region have banded together to get some answers and engage local politicians, municipal, provincial and school commissioners, to get the stalled project to fruition. “We’re concerned that there’s been no movement on this land issue and we’re dissatisfied,” said St. Lazare parent Armando Jardim, who has five daughters, two that are currently in the public-education system, two who have passed through with one waiting to enter.

He said while local school board officials have asked parents to be involved, they have been kept in the dark about why some sites have been rejected. “Parents want to know about the evaluation of these offers and why they were rejected,” Jardim said. “We want to work with the school board and the municipalities. We want the school to be built in a timely fashion but that has already gone by the wayside.”

The delay is already being felt as some students set to go to “jammed” Forest Hill and Pierre Elliot Trudeau schools will have to be shipped to Mount Pleasant in Hudson this fall, Jardim said, adding the existing overcrowding problem will become more acute in a few years.

Although the province provides funds to build a school in a region where numbers warrant it, the requesting board is expected to negotiate with a municipality which is to provide or purchase a site. So far, despite ongoing talks between Pearson officials and St. Lazare and Vaudreuil-Dorion in particular, an acceptable site has yet to be found.

According to Pearson chairman Marcus Tabachnick, some of the sites offered were swamps, had a stream running through it, were wetlands or had a deep gulley, deeming them unsuitable to build a school while one potential site in St. Lazare was dropped because the mayor refused to proceed with rezoning after nearby residents and equestrian enthusiasts protested. “We don’t want to build on land that someone wants to get rid of,” Tabachnick said.

Pearson officials have toured about a dozen sites already and there are two are currently being considered, though Tabachnick declined to provide details other than to say one is being pushed by a private developer and the other by a municipality.

However, a deal is not imminent. “But things can change quickly,” he added.

Jardim hopes municipal officials come to realize a new school is a service young families settling in the area are looking for and they address the needs of their booming populations. “When doing their planning, municipalities should think long-term and consider potential sites (for schools). A lot of parents actually move to St. Lazare and Vaudreuil-Dorion to be to close to schools.”