The French Catholic board is responding to claims that its billboard advertisement is an attack on other French immersion programs.
Public board Vice Chair Alan Halberstadt calls the billboard unethical and inappropriate.
Conseil scolaire catholique Providence Director of Education Joseph Picard says the advertisement highlights what makes the French Catholic board unique. "I'm not even going to respond to the assertion or what Mr. Halberstadt thinks," says Picard. "The fact of the matter is ... this is a campaign about our system and about who we are."
Picard says the advertisement campaign was triggered after the board noticed they were losing high school students from elementary school. The billboard, he says, was meant to address some of the myths about the board. "We're not an immersion system. We are a French language system," says Picard. "What people sometimes don't understand is that our curriculum is taught exclusively in French. Our mandate is to protect, enhance and transmit the French, the Francophone language and culture."
The billboard near Windsor Airport read "education in a French language Catholic school ensures sustainable bilingualism," but has since been changed. Picard says it wasn't switched because of anyone's comments; the billboards get rotated based on recruitment efforts.