Dec. 05, 2018
The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) is pleased to respond to growing interest and provide new opportunities for more students to access high-quality French Immersion Programs in northwest and north central Calgary after a comprehensive community engagement process.
In November, the CBE shared its proposed plan with affected communities for feedback. After giving careful consideration to all that we heard about the plan, we still believe this plan (with one notable boundary change for the Capitol Hill and Hillhurst communities) provides the best opportunities for student learning, sustainability and growth of the northwest and north central French Immersion Programs.
Decision details and supporting information:
It is a sustainable plan that considers stakeholder input and feedback as well as the CBE values and planning principles. We recognize that this plan may not please everyone, as the perspectives and concerns vary depending on the school and residential community.
With more than 60 residential communities and 11 schools involved across northwest and north central Calgary, we needed to balance all the identified priorities and perspectives to arrive at the plan that provided the best support for student learning overall. Legislative requirements and financial and logistical factors needed to be considered in decision-making but student learning was our top priority and growth of the French Immersion Programs was our goal.
We recognize that this decision results in significant changes for some of our families starting in September 2019, and we are committed to working with families to make this as smooth a transition as possible for students. This summary of top themes helps to illustrate how the CBE is responding to feedback where possible. School principals will also be working closely with one another and with their school communities starting in 2019 to develop and communicate implementation plans that reflect their school’s unique needs and circumstances.
We want to thank everyone who made the effort and took the time to participate in this engagement process. Your contributions have made a meaningful difference in the decision-making process.
More information on the engagement process and what we heard throughout the process can be found at www.cbe.ab.ca/dialogue.
