OCDSB proposes to scale back elementary school overhaul
Fewer students will have to switch schools under new proposal
After weeks of protest from parents, Ottawa's largest school board is scaling back several elements of a sweeping restructuring of its elementary school system.
The revised school boundary proposal released Thursday by the public Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) would require fewer students to switch to a new school in September 2026.
Under the new plan, the only schools divided into separate kindergarten to Grade 3 and Grade 4 to Grade 8 configurations would be those that currently exist.
Parents and caregivers will also soon be able to request exceptions that could "allow their children to remain at their current school based on specific circumstances," according to a report on the proposal.
The revised plan would still see both English and French immersion offered in almost all OCDSB elementary schools, although five will remain English-only and six French-only, said director of education Pino Buffone.
The initial plan was to have zero English-only elementary schools, but the grade reconfigurations required to make that happen were going to create "hardships" for families, Buffone said.
"There were concerns about the split-up of siblings quite so young. So we've been able to go back to the original proposal [and] adjust some of those school configurations," he said.
The OCDSB currently has 30 single-track elementary schools: 15 that are English-only and 15 that are French-only.
Fails to address 'disparities,' says trustee
The latest boundary proposal also means some schools might now be "a little lower populated than we hoped," Buffone added, with others "a little higher populated."
By reining in the number of dual-track schools, the board is failing to address significant "disparities" around who can access French immersion, said Nili Kaplan-Myrth, Zone 9 trustee for Capital/Alta Vista.
Kaplan-Myrth said the restructured plan means two of "the most disadvantaged" schools in Alta Vista — Arch Street Public School and Hawthorne Public School — will now remain English-only.
"These are schools where families aren't empowered to run PR campaigns. There isn't the same sense of entitlement around demanding that your child has to be able to go to the local school," said Kaplan-Myrth.
"Why shouldn't [students there] be entitled to the same fabulous programs that are offered in other schools?"
Middle French immersion would still be phased out starting in September 2026, as would the board's five alternative schools, which would transition to community schools.
More than two dozen specialized classes would also be phased out, although the revised proposal retains — for now — the board's primary special needs program and its junior general learning program.
"I honestly feel like we won the lottery," said parent Amanda Marcellus, whose son Lucas has a mild intellectual disability and has made use of both of the programs that were saved.
Specialized classes typically offer lower teacher-student ratios and come with an educational assistant who can pitch in. Ottawa's English public board has more special education programs than its counterparts around Ontario.
"I think they realized that there is value to that [programming]," Marcellus said. "I also think there's lots of parents who chose OCDSB specifically for that reason — they have those programs available."
Can still weigh in
Ever since the initial plans for the OCDSB's largest restructuring in decades came out at the end of February, parents like Marcellus have been expressing their discontent by holding rallies and making their feelings clear at board meetings.
The public will be able to weigh in online about the revisions until April 24, with a chance for delegations to provide direct feedback to the board on April 22.
The final recommendations are set to go to the board's committee of the whole for approval on May 13.
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With files from Matthew Kupfer, Kate Porter