What you need to know ahead of the OCDSB's final vote on its elementary review
Controversial overhaul of elementary programs that has been years in the making
Trustees on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) will take a final vote Tuesday evening on a controversial overhaul of elementary programs that has been years in the making.
Leading into that meeting, the plan remains to phase out alternative schools and middle French immersion, while aiming to dual-track more schools — though not all — to provide both English and French immersion.
Many aspects of the plan have shifted significantly in the months since details were made public. That's in large part due to the more than 12,000 people who have weighed in since the beginning of the year.
Here's a guide to help you get up to speed.
Why is the OCDSB doing this revamp?
Director of education Pino Buffone says an overhaul of elementary programs was a priority on his desk in 2010 when he became a superintendent. Board chair Lynn Scott, who has been a trustee for 30 years, said past boards have made attempts, and she hopes this time it will finally get done.
The issues date back to the late 1990s when the Ottawa and Carleton boards merged and the OCDSB inherited schools with a variety of grade configurations and offerings.
The big goal, Buffone says, is to now give all students access to the same programs in their community school. In essence, that means aiming to dual-track schools to offer both French immersion and English, while phasing out middle French immersion and alternative schools.
Specifically, the board wanted to bring French immersion to 15 single-track English schools to correct socio-economic inequities. The board's data shows its English program teaches a disproportionate number of children from low-income households whose first language isn't English, or who have special education needs.
In addition to resolving inequities, the director of education has also said the restructuring at the elementary level will allow the board to operate more efficiently.
"We have plenty of data ... that we are stagnating as an organization, that we are spreading ourselves too thin, that we need to streamline our programs to two offerings, enhanced English and French immersion," Buffone told trustees at a meeting May 6.
"This organization is entirely distracted from what we need to do for our students."
How are school boundaries changing?
In the end, changes to boundaries and grade configurations for individual schools will not be nearly as significant as originally laid out on Feb. 28.
In order to put French immersion and English in each school, while maintaining enough students to have workable classrooms, staff originally laid out some situations that confounded and upset many parents.
Some schools remained significantly over- or under-capacity. Some schools would have seen cohorts go to one school for junior kindergarten to Grade 3, and then move to another school for grades 4-8.
When the maps were released in late February, parents pointed to siblings who would be separated, children who would have to travel to a school farther away, disruption of after-school child care, the breakup of school communities and more.
Some schools with toilets for small children would be converted to middle schools with lockers.
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By April 3, board staff had gone back to the drawing board and removed those proposed J.K.-3 and grades 4-8 schools. In doing so, five English-only schools remained: Arch Street, Dunlop, Convent Glen, Hawthorne and North Gower/Marlborough.
That frustrated trustees Nili Kaplan-Myrth and Lyra Evans, especially. They argued those able to protest and organize saw changes, yet the OCDSB was willing to leave systemic barriers in low-income areas.
Evans tabled a motion May 6 to bring French immersion to English-only schools, but it failed in a 9-3 vote. Staff said doing so would mean reintroducing the contentious J.K-3 and 4-8 configurations.
Not all was resolved for some parents who gave delegations on April 22, either. They worry some schools won't be able to sustain all grades of English or French immersion with the new school catchments.
How does this affect special education?
All specialized classes for children with complex needs will remain, despite a plan presented in January to phase out 39 of them.
The OCDSB has 142 classes to meet the needs of children who have autism, need behavioural intervention, are hard of hearing, have developmental delays, are gifted and more.
Board staff point out that the OCDSB offers classes other districts do not, and they do cost more. Moreover, staff point to a philosophy of including children in mainstream classes wherever possible, and meeting their needs there.
Unions and parents were unconvinced children in community schools would get the educational assistants and support they need at a time of cost cutting.
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By early April, staff said they had listened to feedback and would keep 13 classes. Trustees vote May 6 to spare the rest.
What is the future for alternative schools?
Going into the final May 13 vote, the OCDSB still intends to phase out its decades-old alternative program — students who enrol this September in J.K. will be the final alternative Grade 8 graduates in the 2034-2035 school year.
That's despite intense protest and lobbying to preserve those five schools for future students.
At protests and delegation nights, parents described how their children enjoy going to alternative schools because of their child-centred approach in the alternative stream. They pushed back against arguments that students must be transported farther from home or don't do well on standardized tests, and instead urged the board to do a fulsome study and consultation.
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"This program is not a boutique option, it's a front-line equity intervention," agreed Trustee Amanda Pressley, who has personal experience in the program and a child currently enrolled.
She has signalled she will seek to pause the elementary program review until further research is done on the alternative program.
How is this review related to the OCDSB's deficits?
Buffone says finances are not driving this reorganization, but he also says everything in some way links back to the annual budget.
Indeed, in Scott's letter to the education minister at the outset of this elementary review more than a year ago, she indicated changes "would not resolve the board's funding challenges ... but they would go some way towards making more effective use of the funding we do receive."
The OCDSB's finances are under provincial scrutiny.
After using up reserves in the pandemic, in part by subsidizing special education when provincial grants didn't cover all costs, the district must now avoid a fifth deficit. The education minister has launched an investigation into these deficits, which could lead to a recommendation that the government temporarily take control.
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Buffone told trustees last week that the ministry has for years spoken to the OCDSB about its structural issues and the "impossible reality" of running four programs at the elementary level. Most other districts under the provincial funding formulas offer only English with a few French immersion schools, he noted.
When will students move?
Once approved, the changes are to take effect in September 2026. The board anticipates about 1,500 more students will move than in a typical school year.
The board is also setting out a policy whereby parents and caregivers can apply to exempt their child so they can stay at their current school. According to a motion approved May 6, there has to be space and the grades have to remain viable at both the sending and receiving school.
In the year to come, fewer renovations will be required now that the board has walked back some grade configurations, but there will still be many staff on the move and changes to transportation that must be worked out.
Even after the changes take effect, the board will have to eye enrolment. If it's low in some schools, the board might need to make further changes.
Finally, the elementary review is just the first of four stages. The OCDSB plans to review early years and child care,
grades 9-12, and adult and continuing education in the years to come.
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