; . 7

Immersion for Saanich

The lobbying for French immersion in Saanich began in the pring of 1977
when a request from 17 families for a second-language leerning progrem
was turned down by the board. At thet time, four members of the board
opposed French immersion while the remaining three favoured its intro-
duction. The opposition considered such a program “elitist” and feered
that its introduction would bring increased costs to the taxpayers of
the municipality.

After hearing of the Saanich situation, B.C.P.F. contacted the group and
offered advice as to the preparation of briefs and the need for political
involvement. This need became evident in November 1978 when a strong
opponent of immersion, trustee Walter Tangye, was returned to office by
acclamation. <A group of Saanich parents realized too late that they had
missed an opportunity to challenge Tangye with a candidate supporting
French immersion.

At this point, disappointment set in and the momentum of the group declined.
But this was short-lived as a June by-election was called to fill the
vacancy on the board of immersion opponent Norma Sealy. The parents group
supported Roy Hyndman, who went on to win. He joined Parrot, Walsh, and
Kristianson as a supporter of French immersion.

November 1979 saw two board positions up for election. dack Armstrong,
Opponent to immersion was defeated and replaced by John Betts. Hyndman
was able to retain his seat won in the previous dune by-election. Now,
with five supporters of immersion on the board, victory came strongly on
January 14th, 1980, when a motion introducing French immersion for kinder~
garten and grade one was passed 5=2,

This long-awaited success took three years of presenting briefs, Lobbying
influential people, and working actively on the part of the parents
advocating French immersion. These difficult years have given these

‘Saanich parents a broad base of support within their community and they

are rightly proud of their achievement considering that they are the
smallest school district in B.C. to have a French immersion program.

The immersion program will be instituted regardless of guarantees of
federal funding. The motion passed stated that immersion would be avail-
able for kindergarten and grade one should there be twenty students
registered in each group. So far, forty-two have signed up for kindergar-
ten, fifty-three for grade one and an unsolicited eighteen for grade two.
No special arrangement for transportation is offered, but this should not
pose a problem as the proposed school to house the program would be on

the existing school bus route and would be accessible to the majority of
interested families.