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Parents are preparing their speeches and hiring babysitters so they can descend on Tuesday’s meeting of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to make their final pitches against changing their beloved early French immersion program.

There’s probably no other city in Canada where French immersion education provokes such passion. At Ottawa’s largest English-language public school board, nearly 70 per cent of kids enrol in French immersion in kindergarten, the highest in the province.

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The proposal to reduce the amount of French-language instruction those kids receive is fiercely opposed by parents who fear their children’s ability to become bilingual is in jeopardy. Whether they represent the majority view is unclear. Two surveys conducted by the board showed most parents who responded were in favour of the changes, or opinion was evenly split.

School board staff have modified the proposal in response to comments, boosting the amount of French back up a bit. But many parents are not mollified. A dozen people have already signed up to speak at Tuesday’s meeting, which is “going to be crazy,” predicts trustee Donna Blackburn.