Later this week, you’ll receive an email from communications@eips.ca via Survey Monkey, asking you to complete an online survey as part of the ongoing public consultation on French Immersion programming within the Division.

Up to this point, consultation has focused on families whose children attend French Immersion programs—in Fort Saskatchewan, Ardrossan and Sherwood Park. The Division is expanding its consultation to families and staff in other specialized and regular programs in Sherwood Park because two of the potential solutions presented may affect EIPS boundaries and programming throughout Strathcona County.

Within the survey, EIPS will use a combination of video and documents to detail three potential ways to enhance programming by balancing elementary enrolment, addressing enrolment pressures and boosting retention at the secondary level.

EIPS opted to use an online survey as opposed to an in-person engagement meeting for the following reasons:

• Not all stakeholders are available to attend in-person sessions and are therefore unable to participate in discussions taking place. By reaching out to all stakeholders via video and supporting documents, EIPS is able to provide the same information to everyone.
• The survey can be filled out at a time and date convenient for each stakeholder. As the online engagement includes video presentations, supporting documents and survey questions, participants should plan on dedicating at least 30 minutes to complete all the sections. The survey will remain open for one month (from June 16 to July 13).
• The use of the online survey will ensure the feedback is gathered through a fair and comprehensive process. Data will be disaggregated so the input from each stakeholder group is given equal consideration.

Once the survey closes, the Division will send all the data to a third-party consultant who’ll spend the summer analyzing your feedback and developing a report for the EIPS Board of Trustees to review in the fall.

NOTE: While the Board of Trustees will make a final decision this fall about the best possible solution, no changes will take place until 2026-27—when the Sherwood Park replacement school is ready for occupancy.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important survey.