Yellowknife (Dec 19/01) - When Ecole Allain St-Cyr opened the doors of its new building in 1999, Jean-Francois Pitre, with moist eyes and a shaky voice, spoke of the long road travelled.

"My eldest, Andre, started school in 1991, at St. Joe's. My youngest started at St-Cyr, and went all the way through," says Pitre today.

"The opening was a milestone."

Pitre is the president of the French school board, the Commission scolaire francophone de division.

Pitre says the formation of the school board is an equally important milestone.

"I see it as my duty as a francophone," Pitre says of his involvement.

He became an advocate for French education rights in Yellowknife more than 10 years after moving here. He'd never before been involved with the French community. One night in 1995 he attended a meeting.

"They were trying to change schools. They wanted to move to William Mc. They wanted to go to Weledeh. It was hell. I started asking questions."

After the meeting, others present asked him to get involved.

"When I get involved, I get involved," says Pitre, laughing.

Across the nation

The Mahe decision in Alberta paved the way for French school boards across the nation.

"The Supreme Court ruling on Mahe in 1990 gave school governance to Alberta francophone parents," explains Jean-Pierre Dube, spokesperson for a national coalition of Francophone parents.

"It's always the parents who are the movers and the shakers, because parents are the right-holders," says Dube, referring to Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 1996, here in the Northwest Territories, the Education Act was changed, allowing for the creation of a commission scolaire for francophone education in the NWT.

"When I first started, we were trying to get a school more than anything else," says Pitre.

"Before the law was changed, we weren't allowed to have our own district. You had to have 500 kids or two schools, two conseils. By the time the law was changed, we were ready. For 10 or 11 years, we'd been operating the school."

The change in the act allowed for francophones in the NWT to have a school board that would operate all French language schools, says Chuck Tolley, acting directeur general for the French board.

"The act," emphasizes Tolley, "had to conform with the Charter of Rights."

Dream into reality

In the fall of 2000, the minister of education accepted a petition from the francophone community and created the Commission scolaire francophone de division. The board would administer one school, Ecole Allain St-Cyr.

On July 1, 2001, the commission became official. One month later, Hay River's French school joined the commission. Retired J.H. Sissons school principal Terry Bradley took on the part-time job of directeur general (superintendent) until his death in the fall.

"This happened very, very quickly. They put in a petition and the government approved. So suddenly this board went from nowhere to having two schools," says Tolley.

Hay River's French schoolchildren don't have their own building. They operate in Princess Alexandria school in two classrooms, and hope to eventually find themselves in the old Ecole Allain St-Cyr portables that have travelled to Hay River after a pit stop in Fort Providence. Just like Ecole Allain St-Cyr, they dream of their own building.

On the national scene, francophone parents are still fighting for full governance.

"There are two problems," says Dube. "There are no funding formulas in place. And there's insufficient power for school boards. For instance, in Prince Edward Island, they still don't have the powers to decide where numbers warrant and where to build."

"Where numbers warrant" is written right into the Charter of Rights.

"But who makes that call?" asks Dube.

The Supreme Court says the minority makes that call but none of the school acts in the country recognize this.

"There are court challenges right now in maybe half of the provinces," says Dube.

He notes that another indication of insufficient powers to French school boards lies in the signature on the paycheques. In the Yukon, as in the NWT, the department of education pays staff.

"Who pays the piper gets the song," says Dube.

But Tolley says it "was simply impractical for such a small school board to take on its own administrative infrastructure like payroll."

"The teachers, who worked for District No. 1, now work for the GNWT, like other teachers in NWT communities outside Yellowknife," he says.

And, he adds, direction, supervision and hiring for the French schools in the NWT take place at the board level. With the formation of a school board, the government gave the French community the ability to run their own programs.

The point of a school board, says Pitre, is that it makes education specific for your children.

"Each board has a different vision, that's what it boils down to: culture and language. Wanting to show your kid what you learned."

Pitre would like to serve another term as president of the French school board.

"I'd like to do the Hay River school," he says, adding that it won't happen right away.

"It's hard for the federal and territorial governments to put a lot of money if it isn't certain that it will work," says Pitre.

And it gets back to who makes the decision on "where numbers warrant."

"Is it one (student)? Is it seven?"

Next year, Hay River will have over 30 students in the French-language program, which now operates kindergarten to Grade 4. The program will grow each year to accommodate the students.

"Once you start the program you can't abandon the kids and say, 'You're done now.' So the board would like to expand the program there one year at a time," says Tolley.

Ecole Allain St-Cyr had fewer than 50 students the year before it moved into its own building.

There are now more than 100 students in the K-9 program, and the board is currently exploring high school options.

A search committee has been struck to find a French-speaking directeur general to take over from Tolley.