Lisgar gifted program to stay in place
By Matthew Pearson, The Ottawa CitizenApril 20, 2010
OTTAWA — The popular gifted program at Lisgar Collegiate Institute will remain in place after trustees on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s education committee defeated an amendment calling for its demise.
The amendment, introduced by Orléans-Cumberland trustee John Shea, called for gifted centres at Lisgar and Glebe Collegiate to close in June 2011.
Gifted programs at Bell, Gloucester and Merivale high schools would continue, with Lisgar’s 300-plus gifted students moved to Gloucester, where currently there are 14 students registered in the gifted program.
The amendment failed on a vote of 4-7.
That means the staff recommendations to close the Glebe and Gloucester programs are still on the table. Trustees debated the future of the board’s gifted program well into the night, wrapping up the meeting sometime after 11 p.m. without passing any motions.
Although his amendment was defeated, Shea said Tuesday many of his concerns about access to programming for east-end students could be addressed when board staff embark this fall on a large, district-wide review of secondary programming.
The congregated gifted program, which brings students identified as gifted together in one school to attend a mix of gifted and regular classes, could be phased out completely down the road.
“Staff noted in the report that given the decline of students and the greater interest of students accessing programming with their own community school, there may be a time within the distant future — we’re talking five, 10 years — where secondary gifted programming could be phased out, but when that would happen, there would be a new consultation process and we would solicit the input of parents on that,” Shea said.