No French immersion teachers yet for Grades 2-5 at Minto school

Parents of young students in Minto could be facing a tough decision about the future of their child's French immersion education.

Brittney Penney, who has children in Grade 2 and Grade 5 French immersion at Minto Elementary Middle School, said she received a letter from the Anglophone West School District on Monday about a shortage of French immersion teachers.

She said she had to reread the letter a couple times because it didn't feel real.

"I started contacting a bunch of my friends who this affects as well, contacting, like, parents whose children are in the same classes. I'm like, 'Are you guys reading this right?'"

The letter explains that as of Monday, the district was not able to secure teaching staff to cover French immersion for Grades 2-5, Grade 5 intensive French, and middle school French immersion and post-intensive French.

The Anglophone West School District declinedan interview request from CBC News"for now," saying theyare "still working very hard on the situation." Spokesperson Paul MacIntosh said the district superintendent would be open to speaking early next week, "after our path forward is established."

WATCH | Mother worries about solutions put forward by district:

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The Anglophone West School District sent a letter to parents about a problem recruiting French immersion teachers for Minto Elementary Middle School. Parents are concerned about the districts suggested solutions, if no teachers are found by the end of the week.

The letter saidthat threefull-time, D-contract, French second-language teachers were offered a recall position before the first round of postings was released at the school, and all three teachers declined the offer.

Multiple rounds of postings for five French second language positions were held, in which no hires were secured and two offers to qualified individuals were denied, the letter said.

It also stated that on Monday, vacant positions were shared with participants ata recent government job fair.

If recruitment effortsdon't yield results, the district said a reconfiguration of teaching assignments would be done to place French second-language teachers at the highest grade level.

Option to dropout, or bus elsewhere

For any classes left without a French immersion teacher, the letter saidthe program would be cancelled for that grade level, leaving two options. Students who wish to remain at the Minto school couldmove out of immersion and into the English stream. If they wish to remain in immersion, they could be bused to Oromocto or Fredericton schools.

The letter says that a final decisionwillbe made on Friday, Aug. 23. The first day of classes for New Brunswick students is Sept. 3.

CBC News requested an interview with the Department of Education, but one was not provided.

Long days, loss of skills

Penney said she has several concerns about the options presented for students, but the biggest oneis about her5th-grade daughter, who has been in French immersionnow for several years.

"We might as well just restart her whole education," said Penney, about the option of movingher daughter to the English program.

Brittain Bancroft, another parent of a Grade 5 French immersion student, said if his daughter were to move to the English stream, he worriesshe would lose a lot of the skills she's gained, since he and his wife don't speak French fluently.

"My daughter, she even said to me, she said, 'I worked really hard. I've tried really hard to learn French. I don't want to lose all my hard work,'" said Bancroft.

He also said his daughter has been inFrench immersion since Grade 1, and it would be a difficult transition to suddenly start takingall of her classes in English.

But Bancroft and Penney agree that going to school in Fredericton or Oromocto is also not an ideal solution.

"It felt like a placating gesture, because I knew that there were bus problems last year and there were many days where they did not have the buses and they did not have the drivers," said Bancroft.

The district has been dealing with an ongoing driver shortage, which hasresulted in some daily schedule changes for the upcoming school year.

Bancroft doesn't see this as a realistic option. It is quite a distance for young kids to travel each day, especially considering an early morning wake up, a long bus ride, a full day of school, the ride home and then homework and other commitments, he said.

He said he understands that it is a challenging situation, but he believes there are incentivesthe district could offer to ensure some of the positions get filled.

"I feel like the options currently being explored are what is cheapest and most cost effective, and that is not how education is supposed to work."