'Bring the lights': Primary school windows boarded up for months

Several hundred students at a Montreal elementary school are forced to spend months in a classroom with no natural light due to shuttered windows, to the point where teachers are asking parents to bring in lamps.

“It's very difficult,” exclaimed a mother from Charles-Lemoine Primary School in the Point-St-Charles district.

“There is zero, zero light. Children are like rats in a laboratory. I was scandalized,” she adds.

She was one of three mothers who kept faith Newspaper After being surprised to discover the status of the classes at a parent-teacher meeting this week.

Due to work on the facade, almost all the classroom windows of this 488-student primary school are currently barricaded.

Until spring

Partitions are removed as new windows are installed. The work will continue through the spring of 2025, according to a letter sent to parents on August 22.

“We were initially told it would be until October,” exclaims one of the mothers.

Photo by Pierre-Paul Poulin

The new construction schedule means many students spend almost the entire school year without natural light.

Teachers therefore ask parents to bring lamps to give youngsters a break from harsh light, report two different mothers.

Poor ventilation

Added to this is the lack of natural ventilation when mechanical ventilation is deficient.

“During study hours, my daughter tells me that students fall asleep because it's too hot,” reports one mother.

For its part, the Montreal School Service Center (CSSDM) indicates that it is working to repair the problem that affects the mechanical systems of part of the school and will be resolved in the coming days.

CSSDM also writes that blocked windows affect “certain classes”. According to our sources, it's actually a lot more classes.

Moreover, many parents are concerned about the safety of the premises in case of fire. The Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM) indicates that blocking windows is not against the standards if the room can hold fewer than 60 students and the door is functional, explained Guy Lapointe, communications manager.

Following are the questions from NewspaperSIM still sent two agents to conduct an on-site inspection on Friday to ensure security at the premises.

“very serious”

Charles-Lemoine School students and staff are not the only ones bearing the brunt of this type of project. For example, about ten windows at Marie-Anne Secondary School were blocked at the beginning of the school year due to adjacent construction work.

Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre, president of the Montreal Teachers' Alliance, said the situation was symptomatic of the dilapidation of school buildings and the many tasks behind schedule.

“On the one hand, we want to get the job done. But on the other hand, these are not ideal teaching conditions,” she reflects.

Still, the school, where almost all the windows are installed at the same time, “is pretty overwhelming,” she admits.