Students facing big decisions as schools aim to stem sliding enrolment numbers

Saxin Daoust has decided that he will go to Confederation Secondary for Grade 9.

But the 13-year-old admits he could change his mind before next September.

He currently goes to the Val Caron school for Grade 8, but is interested in the specialized sports program offered at Lasalle Secondary.

And Daoust wants to be a lawyer and thinks the International Baccalaureate program at Lo-Ellen Park could come in handy. 

"If I choose the wrong school, I might not go down the path I want to go down. And that will just be my life," he says.

His mother Jamie Rocque says Saxin makes good decisions and is certain he will this time. 

"I feel like there is more pressure, but at the same time, having had a child go through it already, don't stress about it. It will all work out," she says. 

It is recruitment season for schools across northern Ontario, all vying to sign up a dwindling number of school aged kids.

At Confederation, that means an information night, where Principal Marty Punkari kicks off the evening by addressing some 100 parents and kids.

He stresses the importance of a community high school, which is small enough for everyone to know everybody, but big enough to offer a range of programs.

And Punkari points out that while specialized magnet high school programs in Sudbury may sound good, they do invole long hours riding a bus. 

"There are students and parents who make a decision and  then regret it and they say 'I wish someone would have told me,'" says Punkari, who just started at Confederation after many years at Espanola high. 

"I don't feel it's a sales pitch at all. I'm not about to bad mouth another school or make us look better."

Like most schools in the north, Confederation's enrolment has been slipping down in recent years.

Helene-Gravel, a French public school in the south end of Sudbury, is swimming against that trend, with 50 more students than it had four years ago.

Next September, that will include Nicholas Bisson's daughter Avelyne.

He says it was an easy decision because he wants her to be connected with her French culture and believes bilingualism will help her job prospects in the future.

Although he admits it feels strange to talk about that when she's only three and a half. 

"A little bit. It's the reality though," says Bisson.

"You can't argue with the advantages that bilingualism will get you in this day and age."

Helene-Gravel Principal Noelle Gauthier says while some parents have made up their minds, she does speak with a few "school shoppers" every open house.

She says she tries to find out what's important to them and allay any concerns they might have, but she says she doesn't feel pressure to convince parents to choose her school.

"I don't feel like I'm selling, because everything I say is true," Gauthier says.

The tables get turned when it comes to the few families she deals with who aren't fluent in French.

People have a right to attend a French school if a parent or grandparent was educated in French.

But some of Gauthier's job is to determine if they are up to the challenge of learning the language and becoming proud of being Franco-Ontarian. 

"So, it all depends on how motivated the parent is, through my questioning and through the vibe I can feel with them as well, I'll know if the parent is truly dedicated to learning French and not just learning French, but learning the culture," she says.

While the recruitment push comes every January and February, the official enrolment count that determines how much provincial funding each school gets, isn't done until October.