Westgate Spanish program move under school board review

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) says it will consider other alternatives for students in the Spanish program at Westgate School.

The program was going to be movedto EugeneCosteSchool, which is 15 kilometres farther south inHaysboro, but parents submitted an appeal.

• Westgate School students, parents fight to keep Spanish program

They argued theschool was too far away, andtoday the board saidit will now take a look at other options.

TheCBEsays there will be another open housefor parents to provide feedback, but the time and date of that meeting has not yet been scheduled.

"If they would have knownEugeneCostewas the location that would be considered, that would have influenced the way they would have responded to other scenarios that were put forward," saidCalgary Board of Educationarea directorCalvin Davies.

Parents say it isa move in the right direction.

"I think the whole process has been handled very poorly by the CBE," said Carolyn Chin."The timing of it was very poor and it created a lot of hard feelings and frustration on the parts of parents who are affected."

Options limited

Before the appeal was granted, some parents had decided to try tofinda new schoolbut were struggling with the options available.

Chin had beenlooking for an alternative because it would be such a long bus ride for herchildren.

"There aren't a lot of options right now. In fact there are no options for our family," Chin said.

"My daughter cried. She doesn't know where she's going. She just wants answers.

Enrolment at her children's designated school is capped, but they are on a wait list there.

"It's just really unfortunate. There's no guarantee as to where they can go," she said.

Chin also looked into the overflow school for her area, which uses a lottery.

The board says there is a space crunch in that part of the city and students who choose not to continue at the Spanish bilingual program will not get any special treatment.