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The full French immersion program would start in Grade 1 rather than in senior kindergarten as it does now, giving parents more time to see how their children are doing before deciding.

The reasons for the changes are practical as well as pedagogical. Having the same program in all kindergarten classes would make it easier for schools to mix and match, creating split grades and balancing class sizes. Now, in schools that offer both, an English senior kindergarten class could be tiny, while the more popular French immersion classes could be bursting at the seams. Parents worry all the classes will end up being larger.

The board’s bottom line would benefit. Five kindergarten classes across the district could be chopped for an annual saving of $500,000, while the provincial grants given the board for students taking French as a second language would increase by $2 million a year.

A flood of parents and teachers have chimed in on the proposals — nearly 4,000 people answered a survey sent out by the board, a few hundred attended public meetings, and the website explaining the changes received 10,000 hits.

Criticism is flying from all sides. Some parents with children in French immersion don’t want the program watered down. Others who prefer their children to be educated in English are upset that option is being taken away in kindergarten.

Parent Jennifer Hirst says the board has one of the best early immersion programs in the country, a conclusion confirmed by its popularity — 68 per cent of senior kindergarten students at the board this year were enrolled in it. Her daughter is in Grade 2 immersion at Robert Bateman Public School, and her son is in JK. If the total hours of French are cut, “the program we had been promised is being taken away.”