Community renews lobby efforts to repair or replace École Évangéline
'We believe this project is important to the community and we want to get it moving'
Residents in the Evangeline region are ramping up their efforts to get a new school or fund repairs to the existing one.
The Conseil scolaire-communautaire Évangéline (CSCE), a non-profit community group which has a mandate to ensure the survival of the French Acadian culture in the Evangeline region, has established a new committee. It will gather information on the current condition of École Évangéline in Abrams Village and find ways to work with the province.
"We believe this project is important to the community and we want to get it moving," said Gabriel Arsenault, chair of the new committee on the renewal of the Evangeline school.
He said the building is much more than a school — it is an important hub for Acadians and francophones in the region. The building also houses a daycare, the school board offices and a community centre.
Arsenault is well-known in the community — he was the superintendent of the French Language School Board for years, and was a teacher at the school before that. He later became president of the St. Thomas Aquinas Society, which works to promote Acadian culture on P.E.I.
Left out of capital budget
Officials said it was disappointing to see that despite identifying the school as a priority, it was left out completely of the most recent capital budget.
According to the CSCE, the school's roof leaks and there are problems with the heating system and many of the building's windows.
"We want to open the lines of communication and keep those lines open so we can discuss what the issues are," said Arsenault, referring to a recent comment from Education Minister Jordan Brown, who criticized the Island's French Language School Board for not making its funding priorities more clear.
"If there's clarity needed, we need to know what areas can be clarified," said Arsenault.
"We remain optimistic, I think there's goodwill from all players," he added.
"It's not something that can be done in a month or two.We're going to try to go as rapidly as we can, but we want to take the time that's needed to do the job right."
Arsenault said 10 to 12 people are now being chosen for the new committee, which will meet for the first time on Wednesday.
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