Modular classrooms are here for good in Montreal schools. If a few thousand children will see their yard grow, since the famous “trailers” will be withdrawn, a possible increase in the number of students urges the Montreal School Service Center (CSSDM) to be cautious.
It was supposed to be a “temporary” solution: in 2018, what was still the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) installed nearly a hundred modular classrooms in schoolyards to cope with a “record” increase in the number. of students.
Three years later, most of these modular classrooms have remained in the landscape. At the Montreal School Service Center, there are 2,500 fewer students this year, or 100 groups, but we remain cautious before uninstalling this type of class.
The drop in clientele is directly linked to the pandemic, in particular the very significant slowdown in immigration. If we say: ‘Perfect, I no longer need these spaces’, we could bite our fingers very quickly.
Mathieu Desjardins, director of the school organization service at the CSSDM
As a good part of the increase in the number of students in Montreal is linked to new arrivals, the CSSDM is “carefully monitoring the resumption of immigration for 2022”.
The cost of installing these modular projects is also a factor in the decision to leave them in schoolyards.
“What is expensive is the construction and the fact of bringing them down and connecting them to the school. Sometimes, it’s worth paying the rental fees rather than undoing them and having to redo them, ”also observes Mathieu Desjardins.
Some go away, others appear
Within three years, seven CSSDM schools could nevertheless see these modular classes uninstalled. “There are certain places where we will withdraw the modular classrooms that had been put into service while waiting for additional space,” says Mathieu Desjardins.
He cites the case of Tétreaultville. At the Saint-Justin annex school, for example, we plan to withdraw modular classes next year.
These classes could nevertheless appear in other places, such as at the Joseph-François-Perrault secondary school annexed to the Saint-Michel district. Major work is planned, and “the students (in whole or in part) could be relocated during the work”, writes the CSSDM in its three-year plan.
“Not a school”
The CSSDM recognizes that in urban areas, modular classrooms “mortgage schoolyards that are already not very large”.
Over the years, however, many students and teachers have testified that with their windows (which open!) And ventilation worthy of the name, these classes almost act as luxurious spaces when compared to schools in poor condition.
In the Rosemont district, the director of the school Les Monarques, whose pavilion will be destroyed next year due to dilapidation, nevertheless estimated last week that a modular unit, “it is not a school”. Currently, four classrooms and a service room are set up in such temporary premises.
Is it acceptable to accommodate students there? asked Julie Simard.
“We don’t want children in modular units. If we have no choice, I understand… but we want our children to be in a school with a library, specialized premises, ”she said.
In 2008, the CSDM estimated that modular classrooms were “not ideal”.
Schools where modular classrooms could be phased out within three years
- Alice-Parizeau School (elementary, Cartierville)
- François-de-Laval School (elementary, Cartierville)
- Gilles-Vigneault School (elementary, Cartierville)
- Saint-Justin school annex (elementary, Tétreaultville)
- Barclay School (elementary, Parc-Extension)
- Judith-Jasmin School (elementary, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce)
- Bedford School (elementary, Côte-des-Neiges)
- École des Nations (elementary school, Côte-des-Neiges)
Source: CSSDM three-year distribution and destination plan for 2022-2025 buildings