Hearsay {that a} faculty shall be constructed on parkland infuriates T.M.R. residents

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After an extended, arduous search, the City of Mount Royal says it has discovered an acceptable location for a much-needed French elementary faculty.

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The situation of the college is a carefully guarded secret, pending remaining affirmation from the Centre de service scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, the previous faculty board that operates French colleges in T.M.R.

However with Mayor Peter Malouf remaining tight-lipped till a proper announcement is made, rumours abound.

Residents who stay in northern T.M.R. started circulating a petition after listening to rumours that the college could also be inbuilt Ernest B. Julien Park, a preferred inexperienced area utilized by households who stay in 4 high-rise condominium buildings beside the Metropolitan Expressway.

Residents who oppose the proposal are additionally circulating a flyer, lamenting the potential lack of inexperienced area and deploring the dearth of public session.

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Jana Stewart says she walks by the park on her day by day strolls and sometimes stops to odor the roses and honeysuckles.

Stewart stated she was surprised final week when a neighbour informed her the park may be changed by a brand new faculty.

“It’s the one park in our district with a playground,” Stewart stated. “Youngsters play there on a regular basis; there are grandparents with strollers and other people studying on benches. It’s an energetic park.”

Different residents say it’s ironic that the city is contemplating digging up the park, which was named after a longtime resident who based the city’s horticultural society.

The talk over the place to construct a brand new French elementary faculty has been a sore level within the city for years.

Two years in the past, Pierre Arcand, the native Member of the Nationwide Meeting, brought about an uproar when he prompt the college could possibly be constructed on a soccer discipline adjoining to Dunrae Gardens, considered one of two English elementary colleges locally.

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The Quebec authorities has put apart $25 million for a brand new French main faculty in T.M.R.

When talks had been first held in 2018, the previous Marguerite-Bourgeoys faculty board (now referred to as a service centre) stated its alternative was to construct a faculty on a part of Dunrae’s soccer discipline, former T.M.R. mayor Philippe Roy informed the Gazette in 2020.

However that plan was placed on ice after English dad and mom complained and the English Montreal College Board balked at handing over the land.

Francophone dad and mom have been ready for years for a brand new faculty to ease overcrowding at their three elementary colleges.

Académie Saint-Clément was constructed for 350 college students however had 600 final yr. Many college students are in cellular lecture rooms.

Some residents say it is not sensible to construct a faculty 100 metres from Freeway 40, near the longer term REM commuter practice line and under the flight path for Trudeau airport.

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“That’s some of the polluted areas of the city,” a resident stated.

Maryiam Kamali Nezhad, the neighbourhood’s native councillor, had a letter revealed in a group newspaper final week saying she desires the park preserved for the group.

She wrote the letter after receiving calls and messages from residents who had been nervous in regards to the park’s future.

In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Malouf stated he couldn’t reveal the placement of the brand new faculty as a result of the the service centre’s attorneys hadn’t signed off on the plan.

After he was elected mayor final November, Malouf put collectively a committee of consultants who got here up with a brief record of appropriate websites.

The areas on the quick record had been shared with officers from the CSSMB, who determined which location would finest match the  wants of the scholars.

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“Most of the youngsters within the francophone elementary faculty system have been put into trailers. It’s not nice for them or the academics they usually lose faculty yard (area),” Malouf stated.

“The CSSMB got here up with their very own conclusion primarily based on the quick record and now they’re coping with their authorized consultants to verify the ultimate alternative works. We shall be ready, as soon as they get the blessing from their inner counsel, to make a joint announcement.”

Malouf refused to say whether or not Dunrae Backyard’s soccer discipline was included on the quick record.

A spokesperson for the EMSB stated the board hasn’t been knowledgeable about any settlement between T.M.R. and the CSSMB.

“We’d be happy to study if the Centre de service scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys and the city have in reality come to an settlement to seek out land elsewhere than Dunrae Gardens,” the board stated in an announcement.

To hurry up the method of constructing colleges, Quebec has given faculty service centres the facility to demand that municipalities cede public property for the “functions of development or growth of a faculty.”

Training Minister Jean-François Roberge justified the transfer, saying it was taking too lengthy for colleges to be constructed.

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