Reevely: These Ottawa schools could be on the provincial chopping block

[guest]

At least a dozen Ottawa schools could be targets for closure as the provincial government moves to cut $250 million to $500 million from its education budget by 2018.

“We actually think that what we want to do is fund the children who are in our school system, not fund empty seats,” Education Minister Liz Sandals said in the legislature this week. According to her ministry, 600 schools across the province are less than half-full and Sandals wants school boards to think about closing them.

That’s one way the Liberals say they’ll live up to a promise not to cut education in Ontario: Funding for each student will stay the same or even increase, Sandals says, but the province’s shifting demographics mean there are simply fewer students in classrooms all over.

“Speaker, do you know that we are currently spending about $1 billion on empty seats?” she went on.

“We think that there are some efficiencies and savings there, and, in fact, our school board partners agree. They have done things like amalgamating back offices to get savings from joint back offices. They have amalgamated transportation. They’re sharing school space. We think that that’s a great use of school space, to have two boards come and share one school. That’s the sort of efficiency that we believe our school system can have, and still have a wonderful education system, which is fully funded for students, not seats.”

(The New Democrats, who challenged Sandals with a ministry consultation document with the $500-million figure in it, say cuts are cuts.)

Figures from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board show they have 12 schools, mostly in the public board, that are less than half-full. Another 21 have between 50 and 60 per cent of the students they were built to hold.

Neither board is planning a new “accommodation review,” but the province may force them into it.

The ministry has a budget for helping boards with this stuff — building additions to schools so they can absorb their neighbours, for instance. It’s spending $750 million on it over four years, expecting to produce $42 million a year in permanent savings.

That’s a lot, but clearly nothing like what the Education Ministry hopes to squeeze from the system. So brace yourself.

Sometimes there are good reasons to keep a half-empty school:

• It might be the only one for miles around. The emptiest elementary school in the public board is in Munster, for instance, but its nearest neighbour is 11 kilometres away;
• Nearby schools that would have to take the displaced students might not have room. Munster’s neighbour, Richmond public school, is at 110 per cent capacity with 250 students. Sucking up another 80-plus from Munster isn’t practical;
• It might be in a growing neighbourhood. Several schools the public board nearly closed in 2000, including Devonshire and Elgin Street, are now overstuffed as more families try to stay downtown; or
• It might have special programs that aren’t easily moved. “Alternative” and vocational schools are perennially underfilled but they’re not necessarily easy to merge with others.

Underused schools can also get more life with non-academic uses. The public board’s Cambridge public school is only at 45 per cent capacity, for instance, but spokeswoman Sharlene Hunter says that figure is misleading. “The school has a PFLC (a community literacy centre), a specialized special education class, and a high number of ESL learners. None of these uses are reflected directly in the school’s utilization rate,” she wrote by email. In practice, it has only a couple of vacant classrooms, Hunter says.

And then there’s, say, Hillcrest high school in Elmvale Acres, which is less than 45 per cent full and has lost 158 of the 680 students it had just a couple of years ago. Or Gloucester and Merivale high schools, whose stats are similar. If you’re going to make the case for keeping them all, make it to the faces of students at the schools in the public board that have not dozens too many students, but hundreds.

Or there’s the Catholic board’s Thomas D’Arcy McGee elementary school in Beacon Hill, at 41 per cent capacity. It’s already been renovated to turn some classrooms into meeting rooms. The school board looked for other uses for its extra space last year but couldn’t find any that were practical.

Closing schools doesn’t save a lot of money by itself because the students in them have to go somewhere else and teachers go with them. It does save a bit on administration and maintenance quickly, though, and the bigger returns come when closed schools can be sold off rather than expensively renovated or rebuilt. That’s money that can be spent on opening new schools in places that are desperate for them.

Some students and families end up losing out. But it’s the only way to keep a school system that makes any financial sense.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely

The emptiest English-language schools in Ottawa

Munster Elementary School
Capacity: 213
Students: 82
Full: 38%

St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 346
Students: 130
Full: 38%

Ottawa Technical High School
Capacity: 1,071
Students: 424
Full: 40%

Gloucester High School
Capacity: 1,608
Students: 660
Full: 41%

Thomas D’Arcy McGee Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 329
Students: 134
Full: 41%

Uplands Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 240
Students: 106
Full: 44%

Hillcrest High School
Capacity: 1,164
Students: 522
Full: 45%

Cambridge Public School
Capacity: 311
Students: 140
Full: 45%

Merivale High School
Capacity: 1,362
Students: 635
Full: 47%

Rideau High School
Capacity: 966
Students: 451
Full: 47%

Leslie Park Public School
Capacity: 282
Students: 135
Full: 48%

Queen Elizabeth Public School
Capacity: 600
Students: 298
Full: 50%

St. Michael Catholic Elementary School (Ottawa)
Capacity: 360
Students: 180
Full: 50%

Dr. F.J. McDonald Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 219
Students: 111
Full: 51%

Grant Alternative School
Capacity: 231
Students: 119
Full: 52%

Severn Avenue Public School
Capacity: 357
Students: 186
Full: 52%

Queen Mary Street Public School
Capacity: 323
Students: 169
Full: 52%

Convent Glen Elementary School
Capacity: 233
Students: 122
Full: 52%

W.E. Gowling Public School
Capacity: 643
Students: 344
Full: 53%

Assumption Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 323
Students: 174
Full: 54%

Regina Street Public School
Capacity: 288
Students: 157
Full: 55%

Glen Cairn Public School
Capacity: 334
Students: 183
Full: 55%

St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 745
Students: 409
Full: 55%

Sir Guy Carleton Secondary School
Capacity: 783
Students: 438
Full: 56%

Divine Infant Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 268
Students: 151
Full: 56%

Good Shepherd Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 361
Students: 203
Full: 56%

Hawthorne Public School
Capacity: 499
Students: 280
Full: 56%

Connaught Public School
Capacity: 389
Students: 219
Full: 56%

St. Luke Catholic Elementary School (Elmvale Acres)
Capacity: 337
Students: 189
Full: 56%

Brookfield High School
Capacity: 1,116
Students: 632
Fulll: 57%

Orléans Wood Elementary School
Capacity: 357
Students: 207
Full: 58%

Henry Munro Middle School
Capacity: 746
Students: 435
Full: 58%

Riverview Alternative School
Capacity: 372
Students: 217
Full: 58%

St. Daniel Catholic Elementary School
Capacity: 266
Students: 155
Full: 58%

Sources: Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (figures from March 2014) and Ottawa Catholic School Board (figures from October 2014).

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