Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter
The 2024-2025 school year marks the seventh consecutive increase in student numbers at the CSSVT, which has grown by 28 per cent in the youth sector over the past five years. As of August 22, at least 396 more new preschool- and elementary-level students were registered compared to last year, as well as an additional 214 students at the secondary level.
Students returned to class at schools associated with the Centre de services scolaire de la Vallée-des-Tisserands (CSSVT) on August 30, and there were a lot of new faces per classroom.
“In Montérégie, all school service centres are experiencing growth, but in relative terms, we’re experiencing the biggest increase,” says director general Suzie Vranderick, who acknowledges the service centre was caught off guard by this rapid expansion.
“In 2018, we drew up our Commitment to Success Plan, which anticipated an increase of 1,000 students between 2018 and 2030. And now, we are already up to over 1,500 students in just three years,” she explains.
The adult sector is also booming, with an increase of 209 students in the general education sector, as well as 105 students in vocational programs.
The CSSVT attributes some of this growth to an increase in immigration to the region, which has led to a need for more Francization courses. More courses are also being added during the day and evening, and even on Saturdays, to meet demand; and a new point of service was launched in the Haut-Saint-Laurent last year, with three evening courses taking place at École Arthur-Pigeon high school in Huntingdon.
In the youth sector, new arrivals who are less familiar with the French language are integrated directly into the classroom. “We are keen to support our schools, and we are working with our teachers and teams to do just that,” says Vranderick, who admits they have no plans to open language classes in the youth sector.
Most positions filled
Student population growth has also translated to challenges in terms of teacher and staff recruitment and hiring. On the first day of school, at least 97 per cent of teaching positions had been filled. Around 96 per cent of support staff positions were filled, and 93 per cent of the positions for educational professionals were staffed.
Assistant director general François Robichaud explains that the CSSVT has had difficulty filling five psychologist positions, which account for much of the remaining professional positions. “Because of this, we decided to integrate other services, such as occupational therapists, who will work as part of a team with the other departments,” he says.
Robichaud adds the CSSVT emphasizes the hiring of qualified employees but admits that like many other service centres and school boards, some positions have been filled by non-legally qualified personnel. “We have teacher mentors to support those who are new to us at the start of their careers. We also have training courses that will be offered throughout the year, so we will be supporting them to ensure quality service is offered to our students,” he explains.
Targeting graduation rates
The CSSVT acknowledges that along with its population growth and need for more space, the service centre is facing another challenge in terms of slumping graduation rates.
Vranderick says the CSSVT has set a target for June 2027 to have 73.2 per cent of its students graduate. The current graduation rate after five years sits at 54.9 per cent, which is considerably lower than the provincial average of 72.5 per cent. After seven years, the figure improves to 67.3 per cent, but still falls short of the provincial average of 84.3 per cent.
The service centre’s Commitment to Success Plan 2023-2027 aims to address this issue by targeting priority areas for intervention, including increasing student success in core subjects such as French literacy and mathematics. “Our focus is on monitoring our cohorts,” says Vranderick. “We are talking about assured competencies, where we want 70 per cent of our students to score at least 70 per cent on elementary school ministerial exams,” she says, noting they had previously used a passing grade of 60 per cent as their marker for success.
Along with the Commitment to Success Plan, each school also has its own plan in place. “When we talk about graduation success in our region, we obviously focus on the school, but it’s the student who succeeds,” says Vranderick. She explains that this represents the work of a team which includes not only school staff and administration, but also each student’s family and their community as well.