Some parents whose children attend schools slated to be closed by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for the 2017/18 school year are vowing to push back.
An OCDSB staff recommends closing seven elementary and middle schools in Ottawa’s west end, and shuttering one east-end high school.
D. Rideau High School
Most of the schools on the list are under enrolment capacity, and extra money that helped keep them open by the province is drying up, according to the board.
Grant Alternative School, for example, is at only 38 per cent capacity, with 101 students in a facility built for 243.
But parents argue it’s one of only a few alternative learning schools in the system, and point out the school’s catchment area was expanded late last year.
“Well it surprises me quite a bit,” said Brent Henneberry, who has four of his five children enrolled at Grant this fall and is a member of the alternative schools advisory council that works with the board.
Henneberry said parents have been phoning each other this week, stunned by the news.
“We [had been] been told there’s nothing in the works about any of the alternative schools closing down,” Henneberry said.
John Mahoney, who has two of his three children enrolled at Grant, said his kids would have to travel to Westboro to get the same kind of education at another alternative school, which includes student-directed learning in a non-competitive atmosphere.
“I think if there was talk of closing Grant there would be a lot of push back from parents,” said Mahoney.
Grant considered for closure in 2007
Grant Alternative School has been on the chopping block before. But the board’s enrolment projections suggest the school’s student population will dwindle to just 78 students by 2025.
Henneberry said the board itself could be partly to blame, because it’s done a poor job of promoting the alternative education model.
OCDSB Board Chair Shirley Seward says she welcomes input from parents on school closures. (OCDSB photo)
“It hasn’t been pushed like the french immersion programs, or anything like that, and I’m sure if it was pushed attendance would go up,” Henneberry said.
OCDSB chair Shirley Seward said she’s not surprised to see parents fight for the schools their children attend.
“That’s what we expect and it’s completely understandable that parents and students become attached to their neighbourhood school and will want to look for other solutions,” said Seward.
“It’s entirely possible that based on the consultation staff may look at all of the input that we have received and may actually have somewhat different recommendations for trustees.”
Public consultations ahead
The board hopes to finish public consultations on the proposed closures by the end of February and make decisions about the seven elementary school before the next school year begins.
There will be a separate process to determine the future of Rideau High School.
Seward said although the short list is by no means a done deal, the status quo spending about $8-million a year to staff half-empty schools is not an option.
“If we don’t deal with the financial problem we’re going to have to pay for that out of our own money, which means cutting other programs and services and jobs.”
Seward warned that if the board can’t demonstrate it’s prepared to make those hard decisions, it could affect how much the province is willing to spend on desperately needed new schools in growing areas.
“It’s probably the most difficult thing that we as trustees have done,” Seward said.
