A committee of parents and municipal leaders has formed in Alleyn and Cawood to look into what it would take for their kids to get school bus transportation to the French and English high schools in the Pontiac.
While Alleyn and Cawood is one of 18 municipalities in MRC Pontiac, the Hauts-bois-de-l’Outaouais and Western Quebec school boards’ boundaries send kids from the municipality to either the French high school in Gracefield, or St. Michael’s, the English high school in Low.
This is of concern for Alleyn and Cawood councillor Sidney Squitti, who in January tabled a resolution, passed by council, requesting the school boards revise ,these boundaries, and at April’s council meeting tabled another resolution to form a working committee tasked with exploring the expansion of the school bus boundaries.
“This revision will ensure that students from Alleyn and Cawood can access programs that align with community needs, providing them with opportunities to contribute to vital services, such as firefighting and skilled trades, thereby strengthening the municipality as a whole,” the January resolution reads.
Squitti says children should have access to unique programs offered at the high schools in their own community, pointing to the Firefighter 1 training program at École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge and the welding program at Pontiac High School.
“There’s opportunities there that the youth here don’t have access to, so we’re just hoping we can get them access to these opportunities,” Squitti told THE EQUITY ahead of Saturday’s meeting.
“We are hoping to provide our youth with choices. Creating choices of where they can obtain their education is the ultimate goal.”
On Saturday, Squitti invited community members interested in joining the committee to meet for the first time.
The group formed a committee – officially called the School Transportation Committee – focused its mission, and chose a chair.
“We have officially named the committee ‘School Transportation Committee’ as it is not necessarily a change in boundaries that we are looking for. We simply want transportation for our youth to attend secondary school in the Pontiac if they choose to do so,” Squitti said.
She noted the committee had decided it would not work to have the school boundaries changed, as this would be a big project that would involve getting the consent of other municipalities involved.
“We just want our youth to have the opportunity to choose between Low and Gracefield or Shawville and Fort Coulonge,” she said. “There are different opportunities available in the Pontiac than there are in other schools.”
She said she’s also heard from parents who have concerns with challenges getting access to continuing education and elementary school programs in the Pontiac, but for now, the committee will focus on high school access.
Committee members are Alleyn and Cawood councillor Ross (Guy) Bergeron, director general Isabelle Cardinal, Rebecca Gravelin, councillor Sidney Squitti, Western Quebec School Board ward three commissioner Tracey Moore, Joseph Squitti and committee chair and councillor Mona Giroux.
“Even myself as a mom with a nine-year-old right now, this is something I’m thinking about too,” said Isabelle Cardinal.
“I want to give my daughter as many opportunities as she can have. And Sidney has young kids too, so we kind of are wearing both hats ourselves, being with the municipality and being parents as well.”
George Singfield, director general for the Western Quebec School Board, explained it’s the board’s council of commissioners that determines the school boundaries, and that the buses align with whatever the school boundaries are.
He said he understands parents in Alleyn and Cawood might be frustrated as buses used to take kids to Pontiac high schools many years ago.
“Any parent can apply for a cross boundary transfer,” he said. “But if they’re accepted, the transportation is not attached.”
The committee now plans to gather a list of names of children who would be interested in attending schools in the Pontiac to bring to the school boards as evidence of interest in this project.
“We want to ensure our youth don’t drop out of high school because they don’t have something that keeps them interested, a goal at the end other than just a high school diploma.”
