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The explosive debates over public school closures move to the Alta Vista and Hunt Club neighbourhoods next.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board plans to study 19 Alta Vista schools as part of a sweeping, five-year review aimed at trimming excess pupil spaces across the district.
The Alta Vista-Hunt Club “accommodation review” is expected to start in September. A final decision on school closures and changes would be made in March 2018, according to the timetable in a staff report. The review was originally supposed to begin this spring, but staff decided a break was needed after the exhausting debate over the first two accommodation reviews conducted this school year. Trustees decided to close six schools in the west end of the city and Rideau High School.
Some of the issues that emerged in those debates apply to the Alta Vista-Hunt Club schools, too. Two of the high schools in the review — Hillcrest and Brookfield — are less than half full. Canterbury, which offers an arts program that attracts students from across the city, is over-capacity. Staff say high schools with small populations can’t offer the course selection students deserve.
All five schools in the area that offer English-only programs are under-enrolled. Dunlop PS, for example, had 157 students in a school built for 337, according to board enrolment statistics from the fall of 2016. Hawthorne PS was at 45 per cent capacity, while Arch Street was at 51 per cent. The popularity of French immersion in the board has led staff to warn that some English-only schools need to be consolidated because enrolment is dwindling.
The two elementary schools in the review that are over capacity — Pleasant Park and Vincent Massey — are both dual-track schools offering English and French immersion programs.
It’s difficult to predict which schools will be targeted for closure. The final plan will probably include complicated shifts to both programs and grade configurations.
Trustee Mark Fisher, whose ward includes five of the schools, calls reviews a “necessary evil.”
“We have to optimize our space and make sure we’re providing high quality, accessible programming throughout the city.”
Staff suggests delaying a review of Centretown area schools until September 2019. That review had originally been planned for 2018. The Stittsville-south urban area would be studied in 2020, while the eastern area will undergo another study in 2021. Trustees were to debate the timetable at a meeting Tuesday night.
The schools in the Alta Vista/Hunt Club review:
Secondary: Brookfield, Canterbury, Hillcrest and Ridgemont
Elementary: Alta Vista, Arch Street, Bayview, Blossom Park, Charles Hulse, Dunlop, Featherston, Fielding Drive, General Vanier, Hawthorne, Pleasant Park, Robert Bateman, Roberta Bondar, Sawmill Creek, Vincent Massey
Key dates:
Sept. 12, 2017: A staff report will suggest changes such as school closures and program changes
Nov. 1, 2017 and Jan. 11, 2018: Public meetings
Jan. 26, 2018: Final staff report recommending changes
March 1, 2018: Board makes decision
September 2018: Recommendations begin to be adopted
jmiller@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller
查看原文...
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board plans to study 19 Alta Vista schools as part of a sweeping, five-year review aimed at trimming excess pupil spaces across the district.
The Alta Vista-Hunt Club “accommodation review” is expected to start in September. A final decision on school closures and changes would be made in March 2018, according to the timetable in a staff report. The review was originally supposed to begin this spring, but staff decided a break was needed after the exhausting debate over the first two accommodation reviews conducted this school year. Trustees decided to close six schools in the west end of the city and Rideau High School.
Some of the issues that emerged in those debates apply to the Alta Vista-Hunt Club schools, too. Two of the high schools in the review — Hillcrest and Brookfield — are less than half full. Canterbury, which offers an arts program that attracts students from across the city, is over-capacity. Staff say high schools with small populations can’t offer the course selection students deserve.
All five schools in the area that offer English-only programs are under-enrolled. Dunlop PS, for example, had 157 students in a school built for 337, according to board enrolment statistics from the fall of 2016. Hawthorne PS was at 45 per cent capacity, while Arch Street was at 51 per cent. The popularity of French immersion in the board has led staff to warn that some English-only schools need to be consolidated because enrolment is dwindling.
The two elementary schools in the review that are over capacity — Pleasant Park and Vincent Massey — are both dual-track schools offering English and French immersion programs.
It’s difficult to predict which schools will be targeted for closure. The final plan will probably include complicated shifts to both programs and grade configurations.
Trustee Mark Fisher, whose ward includes five of the schools, calls reviews a “necessary evil.”
“We have to optimize our space and make sure we’re providing high quality, accessible programming throughout the city.”
Staff suggests delaying a review of Centretown area schools until September 2019. That review had originally been planned for 2018. The Stittsville-south urban area would be studied in 2020, while the eastern area will undergo another study in 2021. Trustees were to debate the timetable at a meeting Tuesday night.
The schools in the Alta Vista/Hunt Club review:
Secondary: Brookfield, Canterbury, Hillcrest and Ridgemont
Elementary: Alta Vista, Arch Street, Bayview, Blossom Park, Charles Hulse, Dunlop, Featherston, Fielding Drive, General Vanier, Hawthorne, Pleasant Park, Robert Bateman, Roberta Bondar, Sawmill Creek, Vincent Massey
Key dates:
Sept. 12, 2017: A staff report will suggest changes such as school closures and program changes
Nov. 1, 2017 and Jan. 11, 2018: Public meetings
Jan. 26, 2018: Final staff report recommending changes
March 1, 2018: Board makes decision
September 2018: Recommendations begin to be adopted
jmiller@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller
查看原文...
