Port Stanley to have “top-heavy” school

Thames Valley District School Board trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday night, Jan. 12, to transfer all Grade 7 and 8 classes from the Pierre Elliot Trudeau French Immersion elementary school in St. Thomas to Port Stanley Public School, starting in September.

Port Stanley parents had called for a mix of Kindergarten through Grade 8 FI pupils to be sent to temporary quarters in their school instead, to relieve overcrowding at PET. They didn’t want their younger children overwhelmed by older FI grades.

But trustees decided that keeping the Grade 7 and 8 “cohort” from PET together would ease the transition to a new school. It’s considered an interim solution to overcrowding until other alternatives, including a second French Immersion school in Elgin County, could be studied.

At least some PET parents, who also supported the option of sending Kindergarten through Grade 8 FI pupils to Port Stanley rather than just the two senior grades, continue to be unhappy with the school board over the decision.