MONTREAL,
MARCH 27, 2013- The English Montreal School Board
(EMSB) Council of Commissioners has confirmed
that a proposed new high school in Côte Saint-Luc will be named Wallenberg Academy. It
will begin operations for the 2014-2015 academic year, provided an optimum
number of 60 students enrol next fall.
EMSB Chairman
Angela Mancini stated that unlike previous attempts to bring a new mainstream
high school to the former Wagar High School facility, now called the Giovanni Palatucci Facility, plans call for an appropriate window to be given
to introduce an enriched curriculum and
an open house in early fall 2013. The
new school would cohabitate with John Grant High School, Marymount Adult
Education Centre, the CARE Program and the EMSB Book Processing Centre.
The EMSB ran a
successful name the school contest last fall and early winter. Commissioner Syd
Wise, who heads the task force studying the option, notes that there was a natural connection between the names of
Palatucci and Wallenberg. Palatucci was
an Italian police official who saved thousands of Jews during the
Holocaust. Raoul Wallenberg was a
Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary.
Consideration was also given to naming the school after two distinguished Montrealers, the late poet
Irving Layton and the late writer
Mordecai Richler.
It is the intent
of the EMSB to start the school with Secondary I students. The school concept
has the full cooperation of the City of Cote Saint-Luc and Mayor Anthony
Housefather, who sits on the task force. Plans call for sports concentration, heritage
languages and enriched science, English and music programs to be offered.
A public
information meeting will be held in May for parents and an open house next
fall, followed by a registration period.
For more
information call 514-483-7200 ext. 7429.
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Contact:
Michael
J. Cohen
Communications
and Marketing Specialist
English
Montreal School Board
(514)
483-7200, ext. 7243