The turn of secondary schools from overflowing

Dominique Scali

Thursday, march 1, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Thursday, march 1, 2018 01:00

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Students who eat sitting on the floor, plugs in the corridors, gyms cut in two. After causing headaches in primary school, overcrowding is happening now in the Montreal high schools.

“Without timely help, the pressure will result in a decline of student success “, is concerned about Patrice Brisebois, director of the school Saint-Laurent, in the borough of the same name.

Photo Agence QMI, Philippe-Olivier Contant

Patrice Brisebois
Director Of École Saint-Laurent

This property is already occupied to 100 %, as is the case for 12 secondary schools, on the 13 of the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (CSMB).

In two years, there is certainly almost 1,000 seats, according to figures obtained by The Newspaper.

These statistics are ” conservative “, according to the chairman of the CSMB, Diane Lamarche-Venne.

“Last year, we received 1279 students more than predicted by the ministry of Education “, in particular because of the massive arrival of young migrants.

Because too often, the department under-estimated the overcrowding in the future, particularly the one coming from the immigration, explain the presidents of the two largest school boards of the island.

“We open more classes to home and more quickly,” notes Mr. Brisebois. However, these classes, which bring together students learning French can only count a maximum of 17 young people, against thirty in the regular classroom.

On the knees of the other

Photo Dominic Scali

The student Gayle Caesar, 15 years old, in a local visual arts of the Sophie-Barat high school in Montreal, where teachers avoid to create sculptures in three dimensions to students by a lack of storage space.

“Sometimes, we eat standing. Or on the knees of each other, ” says Gayle Caesar, 15 years old, a student at Sophie-Barat high, a school full to the brim in the borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville.

Impossible to circulate in the corridors of this school of the Commission scolaire de Montréal without falling on adolescents who take their meals on the ground.

In the spaces over-crowded, the teenagers have the wick shorter. “The tiraillage can turn into a fight. A young person who is pushing or shoving will not always respond with courtesy, ” said the director of the école Saint-Laurent.

Photo Agence QMI, Philippe-Olivier Contant

The modular units were reserved for primary schools in the past. Workers are in the process of installing to the Saint-Laurent high school.

This is why arrows have been taped to the floor of his establishment to point out to the students in which direction to move and thus avoid the creation of caps and shoving.

A few units manufactured that will host classes that are being installed in the courtyard of the school. But this addition does not save space in the common areas.

The gym has had to be divided into two to accommodate two groups at the same time… which must therefore run in smaller spaces than the norm.

The CSMB application of the department’s funding to add 45 real local to this school. However, some of their expansion projects have been rejected in the past year. And when they have the money, the districts, which grant the permits to work, are too often ” sticks in the wheels “, said Ms. Lamarche-Venne.

“It was an accumulation of problems leads us to a wall,” warns she.

When dinner on the ground is “part of the culture”

Photo Dominic Scali

Students eat in one of the corridors of the école Sophie-Barat. “When the weather is nice, it is less worse because they go outside, but in the winter, and when it rains, it’s terrible,” said Suzanne Leduc, manager.

“A parent once told me that her son kept going to the toilet because there is too much world,” says Serge Germain, pedagogical advisor at école Sophie-Barat.

In this school, which is busy 100 %, the cafeteria is so small that it cannot accommodate half of the approximately 1000 students in the main building. Young people have therefore taken the habit of eating in the hallways, to the point where it “is part of the culture” of the school, tells the story of Suzanne Leduc, manager administrative.

Photo Dominic Scali

Suzanne Leduc
Manager Sophie-Barat High School

“Young people choose a corner to eat and they tend to keep it the same all year,” said Ms. Leduc. I tell them : “Okay, you can keep your corner, but no salad on the floor” ” illustrates it.

A skin of a clementine and a box of juice carton hanging out in a hallway after the dinner time, was able to see The Log during his visit.

This way to overcome the lack of space gives a hard time to the concierge, who finds trash on all the floors, ” says Ms. Leduc.

“It is necessary to lock the lockers empty, otherwise we found the food in. “

More soon

Sophie-Barat high school, which has 1570 students, in two buildings, could receive a total of 272 young people over five years.

Due to a boom in population and immigration, Ahuntsic-Cartierville is an area of Montreal where many primary schools have been expanded in recent years, welcoming students who will soon come to secondary school.

The Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) therefore hopes to receive funding from the department to expand two of its schools, including the Sophie-Barat.

Photo Agence QMI, Philippe-Olivier Contant

The direction of the école Saint-Laurent has set up arrows to the ground to make the traffic more fluid.

By 2027, the ministry of Education does, however, no overcrowding in the schools of the largest school board in Quebec.

“It is because of our large number of schools and the size of our territory “, said president Catherine Harel Bourdon.

Thus, it is possible that there are more places than pupils in the whole of the territory, but the schools in some neighborhoods are overflowing with beautiful and well.

It is one of the major concerns of the members of the parents ‘ committee of the secondary school of the CSDM, explains the commissioner’s parent, Marcel Lauzon.

On the side of private schools, the overcrowding is not felt, because they can refuse students. But it is possible that some will be soon forced to rethink their selection process to cope with an increase in demand, says Geneviève Beauvais, of the Federation of private educational institutions.

The ministry of Education indicates that the files extension is under analysis, and that the selected projects will soon be announced.

EXPLOSION Of STUDENTS AT MARGUERITE-BOURGEOYS

Number of places missing

• 2019-2020: 187

• 2020-2021: 964

• 2021-2022: 1526

• 2022-2023: 2090

• 2023-2024: 2486

• 2024-2025: 3046

• 2025-2026: 3547

• 2026-2027: 4134

Reception class at École Saint-Laurent

• September 2016: 8

• September 2017: 11

• February 2018: 17