Nunavut’s French-language school to hold special meeting this week

Nunavut’s French-language school board, the Commission scolaire francophone du Nunavut, will host a much-awaited special general meeting April 15. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut’s French-language school board, the Commission scolaire francophone du Nunavut, will hold a much-awaited special general meeting April 15.

The CSFN had called the meeting to respond to a number of questions and complaints from a parent group called the Association des parents francophones du Nunavut, or APFN, who have accused the school board of a lack of transparency and communication with its school community.

The meeting will be hosted at the school board’s only school, École des Trois-Soleils in Iqaluit, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The APFN has already drafted a list of questions for the school board’s director and its elected commissioners about decisions the association alleges the board has made without any consultation with parents.

The conflict came to a head in mid-January, when the school board sent home a French-language notice to parents on a Friday afternoon, informing them of staffing changes to the school’s kindergarten program set for the following Monday morning.

“Is the CSFN ready to take responsibility if parents and staff find that this communication is not satisfactory?” the parents association wrote to the school board Feb. 2, in a series of questions it asked to be answered at a special public meeting.

Those include inquiries about the permanency of the school’s kindergarten program, teacher assignments and budget allocations.

The school board meeting’s agenda includes an item to respond to written questions, as well as provide an update on a lawsuit the board has recently launched against the Government of Nunavut, demanding more resources for the territory’s only French-language school.

The lawsuit alleges the GN has breached francophone education rights protected by Section 23 of the Charter, and requests additional funding for additional staff and infrastructure.

The CSFN’s special meeting, original scheduled for March 25, was postponed until this week due to the resignation of outgoing commissioner Seth Reinhart.

The school board has yet to announce Reinhart’s replacement.

And then on April 14, the CSFN put out a release announcing the resignation of another commissioner, Louis Arki, who has sat on the council since 2009. The school board has yet to launch the process to find his replacement.