Toulouse: a redesigned school map against a background of social diversity that does not appeal to all parents of students
With the opening of two new colleges in 2022, in Saint-Simon and Guilhermy in Toulouse, the school map is modified which does not please all parents of students.
The future school map for colleges in Toulouse, which will be approved in January 2022 by the Haute-Garonne departmental council, a consequence of the creation of two new establishments which will open their doors next September (Saint-Simon and Guilhermy), does not only happy among the parents of students.
As a reminder, the construction of these two new colleges was recorded in the wake of the implementation, in 2107, of the social mix plan in the colleges, a measure dear to the President of the Department (PS) Georges Méric.
The device, in partnership with the academic inspectorate, began with the pupils of the Reynerie district who, instead of returning to the Raymond Badiou college (doomed to disappear, read opposite), were welcomed into five colleges known as “favored” of Toulouse. The experience was then rolled out for the students of Bellefontaine college, which will also be closing.
Debate around the social position index rate
To replace these two colleges in the priority neighborhoods of Toulouse, the Department has built two establishments in outlying neighborhoods. As a result, the school map, or the attachment of schools to a neighborhood college, is reflected in a modification. Particularly in the Reynerie – Bellefontaine / Saint-Simon – Lardenne / Cugnaux – Tournefeuille / Vauquelin college sectors where “public meetings with the parents of pupils have been scheduled”, recalls the departmental council.
The parents’ representatives of the elementary school Gaston Dupouy (Pradettes), whose CM2 students have long been accommodated in 6th grade at Nicolas Vauquelin college, hoped to be able to send their children to the new Guilhermy college, closer to the school, which is due to open in September 2022. But apparently, the school card will not allow it.
At the heart of the dispute between the parents of students at the Dupouy school and the Department, the rate of the social position index (IPS), a basic criterion used by the community to redraw a sectorization that mixes professional social categories (CSP ).
The parents of students from the Gaston Dupouy school are not high enough at the Vauquelin college – 88 against an Toulouse average of 106 -, not to mention the recent incidents of school bullying which spoils the image of the Bagatelle college. “We agree to play the role of social mix at Vauquelin college, and parents have always done so, but this time we don’t want to play this role alone”, confides a father of a student who wants to remain anonymous .
The same questions were raised last October by many parents of students for students from the sectors of Cugnaux, Villeneuve-Tolosane, Seysses, Portet, Tournefeuille and Toulouse who would be welcomed, in part in 2022, in the new Saint-Simon college.
The future sectorization at the start of the 2022 school year
“Guarantee a place for each student; preserve the beneficial effects of the system for improving social diversity for the pupils of the Reynerie and Bellefontaine districts; combine the conditions of social equilibrium of the two colleges open on Avenue Einsenhower in Toulouse; ensure a balanced distribution of the staff of all the establishments concerned by the opening of the two colleges ”. This is essentially the message conveyed by the departmental council, during its meetings with the representatives of parents of the sectors concerned by the new sectorization which will be voted in January, and will be implemented in September 2022 with the opening of Saint-Simon and Guilhermy colleges. According to the department’s projections, Saint-Simon could accommodate 400 students next year (542 in 2023), Guilhermy expects 370 students in the first year and 498 in 2023.