Hay River (Jan 17/05) - Parents at the French-language Ecole Boreale are angry their children have been banned from the upcoming science fair at a neighbouring school.

The Hay River District Education Authority (DEA) made the decision, arguing Ecole Boreale and English-language schools compete for students.

"I think it's very childish," says parent Ken Boyer. "It's like a kid having a tantrum in a sandbox."

Boyer says the DEA decision is politics and the children are being dragged into it, adding the move is like trying to "segregate" people.

Another parent, Candi Carleton, calls the decision horrible. "I don't think keeping children from going to the science fair is going to encourage people to go to English schools."

The DEA's concern is that Ecole Boreale admits some non-rightholder students - those who don't have a constitutional right to attend a French-language school.

"We've found we've been in competition with them (for students)," says DEA chair David MacDonald.

Ecole Boreale was established in 1996 as a program at Princess Alexandra school, but became a separate school four years ago. It is run under the Yellowknife-based Commission Scolaire Francophone.

"They explained to us it was only to be for French language rightholders, as defined by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," said MacDonald.

When the DEA discovered non-rightholders were to be admitted, it passed a motion in 1999 asking the Commission Scolaire Francophone to restrict access to rightholders.

"We are concerned about fairness," MacDonald says, noting, for every student leaving a DEA school, about $9,000 in GNWT funding is lost.

"It impacts on our programs," he says. "It impacts on our staffing levels."

Non-rightholders admitted are also deemed to be rightholders, along with their siblings, after attending Ecole Boreale for one year. MacDonald estimates half of the school's student population began as non-rightholders.

"On the DEA, we have a duty to try to protect all the kids of Hay River," he says, noting Princess Alexandra - which hosts the science fair - has lost its music program and several teachers because of decreased funding.

"We don't want to be competing," he adds. "We don't want to drag kids into this."

MacDonald says programs like the science fair, scheduled for late February, are ways to attract students to DEA schools. "We said, 'Hold it. It's time we drew a line in the sand.'"

Ecole Boreale has 55 students in Grades 1-7, of whom four are defined by the school as non-rightholders.

The facility could take up to 20 per cent non-rightholders.

A new Ecole Boreale, which will accommodate up to 120 students, is currently under construction next to the existing school.

Gerard Lavigne, superintendent of the Commission Scolaire Francophone, says only one or two non-rightholders are admitted each year. "We're not talking about a large number."

In fact, he notes more rightholders attend English-language schools in Hay River. "That's a parental decision and one we don't question."

Lavigne rejects the DEA opinion there is competition for students.

"I don't accept their reasoning for not holding joint events like a science fair."

In previous years, Ecole Boreale teachers have helped plan the fair and the school's parents have been judges.

"From my perspective, I think they're adults making decisions for kids for reasons that don't involve kids. They're political reasons, not educational reasons."

Lavigne won't go as far as to say there is prejudice against the French-language school, and accepts the DEA's explanation of the ban at face value. "I have no other basis to make any other conclusion."

Ecole Boreale principal Lorraine Taillefer is disappointed by the DEA decision.

"My reaction when I first heard it was I was shocked," she says. "It did not make any sense to me."

Ecole Boreale students are still able to participate in science fairs at the Hay River Reserve school and at the French-language school in Yellowknife.

Ecole Boreale students say they will take their projects elsewhere.

"I was (sad) in the beginning, but now I'm not, because there's other science fairs we can go to," says 10-year-old Ilona Gyapay, who was an award winner at past PA science fairs.

Krista Painchaud and Alexis Miller, both 10, say they will still go to the PA science fair to see the projects, because they learned a lot at previous fairs.NNSL file photo

Last year, Ecole Boreale students - including Nicole Desautels and Connor Goudreau - participated in the Princess Alexandra School science fair.