Centennial Academy secures funding for future survival

Centennial Academy. (Denise Roberts/CTV News)

It’s been a stressful year for staff and students at Centennial Academy, with the threat of closure hanging over their heads.

But thanks to a coalition of private donors, school will be back in session next year and the foreseeable future, according to the school’s director, Angela Burgos.

“The Leger Family Foundation has initiated a coalition with the support of the Molson Foundation and with the support of these foundations. We have been able to regulate our situation and we are going to be good for next year and the years to come,” she said.

The school caters to students with learning difficulties, including ADHD and dyslexia, and has developed models that aren’t offered in the public system. It moved to its current location on 2075 Sherbrooke St. West in 2020, but the heritage building required significant renovations, and the school’s debt grew to nearly $9 million.

Burgos said the crisis drew the community together, including the students who demonstrated to save their school.

Ellie Girard, 16, who suffers from mental health and learning difficulties, has only been at Centennial Academy for two years, but said it’s the only school where she’s thrived and she wanted to do whatever she could to support the effort.

“We did a protest recently where we were holding up a bunch of signs. We have no Plan B help because a lot of us, we don’t have any Plan Bs,” she said.

Girard said she’s filled with relief now knowing the school will be open next year.

“I can finish everything without having the anxiety of being a new kid again at another new school. And I get to finish my year here with the teachers that I know and the system that works for me,” she said.

But there are still future challenges facing the school, according to Burgos. With the help of Liberal MNA Jennifer Maccarone, they are currently lobbying Quebec for funding for its French sector.

In 2008 the province stopped accrediting new francophone private schools, and Centennial launched its French side in 2016, and they make up nearly half of the 300-student body. They are asking for special status for the school since it serves a population with unique needs and has an 80 per cent graduation rate.

“What we’re doing is unique and has for many years provided a solution for many families with great successes of students that have gone on to all kinds of careers,” she said, adding that they still have spaces available for the 2025-2026 school year.