Munster Elementary School faces closure because of low enrolment

A rural southwest Ottawa school's future is in doubt because of steadily-dropping enrolment, while the decision about what to do with it could affect more communities.

Munster Elementary School has a capacity of 219 students, according to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

It was nearly full in 2005 with 191 students from junior kindergarten to grade 5, but this year only 58 students are enrolled.

• Hear more about the issues on CBC Radio One's Ottawa Morning, 91.5 FM in Ottawa, around 7:20 a.m. ET

A school board information package said the area around the school isn't expected to offer much population growth in the near future.

"We have significant concerns that this level of enrolment will not serve to provide the school's students with a fulsome learning experience," said the board in the handout.

Four options given

Jessica Breckenridge said she and other parents went to the school board last year hoping to find a solution, with their hope the board would study the idea of bringing French immersion to the school.

"A lot of (reason for declining enrolment) is the French, a lot of people choose the Catholic board in Richmond as well because of their French," she said Wednesday night.

At the meeting, board officials including planning manager Karen Ostafichuk said that process started in April and included consulting parents at Munster and nearby schools.

After parents north of Fallowfield Road said they felt more closely tied to Stittsville than Munster to the south and expressed reservations about sending their children to early French immersion there, the board said they widened the scope of the review to include a total of four options for September 2015:

• Keep the status quo for the 2015-16 school year, with a projected 54 students. The board says this would likely mean students from three different grades in one classroom.
• Start an early French immersion program that would bring in students from A. Lorne Cassidy Elementary School in Stittsville and increase enrolment to 80 students if all came at once. The board says this sort of transition would normally start with only senior kindergarten students being "grandfathered" in, but they'd need to bring at least students from Grades 1 and 2 along in this case. 
• Close Munster Elementary School and move all 54 projected students to A. Lorne Cassidy Elementary, giving it 618 students or just above capacity.
• Close Munster Elementary School and move students to A. Lorne Cassidy Elementary or Richmond Public School, depending if they live north or south of Fallowfield Road.

Board officials said more than once that if the school were to close, it could still be used by the community and as a "holding school" to take students from other, overloaded schools if changing populations make that necessary.

Would French immersion do enough?

Munster Elementary School parent Chris Potts was among the dozens of speakers from Munster and the surrounding communities at Wednesday's public consultation.

"Obviously I don't think it should close, sending kids to schools that are nowhere near here when we have so much within walking distance doesn't seem like a really great option to me," he said.

"The school is in great shape. Bringing in an early French immersion program and doing a dual track seems like a great choice."

However, some parents from A. Lorne Cassidy said they wouldn't want their children to go to early French immersion in Munster because it wouldn't get enrolment up enough to be a long-term fix and they'd just end up moving again.

The board's documents said the possibility of three grades in one classroom would exist with that choice as well.

Public consultations on these and any other options put forward can be submitted to the school board by Dec. 17.

Board officials said they'll present the comments they've gathered to trustees at the end of January and hope to have a decision in early February.

On mobile? Click here for a map of the schools around Munster discussed above.