Bas-Saint-Laurent: a school saved from closure… for now

The small municipality of Esprit-Saint, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, breathes a sigh of relief: its school, which was threatened with closure, will remain open next year. Her future still remains uncertain, but the community is taking steps to keep her alive.

“It is not won, but we remain hopeful,” says Langis Proulx, the mayor of this municipality of around 320 inhabitants located around sixty kilometers from Rimouski.

Services will be maintained at La Colombe school for the start of the 2025 school year, the Phares school service center recently confirmed.

However, meetings are planned twice a year with the monitoring committee to “evaluate the situation” and “discuss the actions to be taken,” indicates the communications coordinator, Zoé Ross.

“The municipality is implementing several initiatives to attract new families to the region,” she emphasizes.

The possible closure of the La Colombe school would also have an impact on families in the neighboring municipality of La Trinité-des-Monts, since their children also attend the Esprit-Saint establishment.

Seduction operation

In the fall of 2023, the specter of closure loomed over this small school.

The service center then predicted that the number of students would decline over the next three years, dropping to 12 students within three years.

The municipality, however, rolled up its sleeves, hoping to reverse the trend.

Since September, a daycare has now been open, which should convince more parents to send their children to their village school in the coming years.

Several children attend schools located in other municipalities which are on the route of a parent going to work, since no daycare was offered until very recently at the Esprit-Saint school. , explains Mr. Proulx.

The municipality has also increased initiatives to attract new families. A list of housing for rent has been distributed to attract families from Rimouski who have difficulty finding housing and steps are underway to put new land up for sale for residential construction.

A new family recently moved to Esprit-Saint with their three young children. “We are going to have three more at school soon,” rejoices Mr. Proulx. Another family should also settle there shortly.

The municipality would also like to build affordable housing for elderly people living alone, which could free up homes for young families, he adds.

The survival of the school ensures a better quality of family life, adds Allan Baker, the director general of the municipality who is also the father of a child who attends the establishment.

“The school is five minutes from home, it’s a small school, it’s easier to communicate with teachers and management,” he says. And for a municipality, losing its school is a bit like the beginning of the end.”

Another school is threatened with closure

Another school in Bas-Saint-Laurent, located in Saint-François-Xavier-de-Viger, is also threatened with closure, due to the drop in the number of students.

The Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup school service center recently created a “survival committee” to analyze the situation, since the number of children in this school has fallen below the twenty mark.

The creation of this committee does not, however, mean that the Saint-François school will close, since no decision has yet been made on this subject, would like to clarify Geneviève Soucy, deputy general director of the school service center.

The children who attend this school also come from the neighboring village, Saint-Épiphane. Students from the two villages attend the Saint-Épiphane school in 1^re2^e et 3^e year and that of Saint-François in 4^e5^e et 6^e year.

This choice was made more than a decade ago, because there was not enough room for all the students from the village of Saint-Épiphane in their school.

The number of students has since decreased and parents from the village of Saint-Épiphane are now questioning this distribution, indicates M^me Soucy.

A consultation will be carried out this year. “We’re going to see if parents want their children to attend their village school rather than moving the clientele,” she says.

The mayor of Saint-François-Xavier-de-Viger, Yvon Caron, affirms for his part that the parents of his municipality want their children to be able to attend school in their village.

However, he remains hopeful of saving the establishment, since the number of students should start to rise again in the coming years. “It’s the worst year ahead, but after that it will increase,” he says.