Parents, school board spar over boundary changes

Gabrielle Huston · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 05, 2025 1:58 PM EST | Last Updated: March 5

Proposed changes to Ottawa's English nationalist simple schoolhouse boundaries aren't surviving up to the extremity of a instrumentality to assemblage schools, according to aggravated parents.

Last week, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) released a caller boundary map that would see about 11,000 students change schools successful 2026, much than the accustomed 6,000 to 8,000.

Karyn Ostafichuk, OCDSB general manager of readying services, defended the changes astatine a trustee meeting Tuesday, saying the board did make assemblage schools but those communities "may not beryllium [the aforesaid as] however a assemblage defines itself."

Parents and trustees astatine the gathering questioned however the committee could frame the changes arsenic creating "community schools," with 1 genitor calling it "manipulative" due to the fact that of however it would determination their kids.

"The ground of what we're doing is to bring students backmost to their assemblage schools, walking to schools," said Suzanne Nash, trustee for Zone 4. "[But] erstwhile we look astatine the connection astatine this time, we're going to present enactment students backmost connected buses."

Pino Buffone, OCDSB manager of education, responded: "Our overarching principles … are not absolute. It's not binary.… It's not without immoderate complexities."

Ostafichuk acknowledged that Nash's portion is one of a fewer that were challenging to divide, due to the fact that immoderate regions person much schools or students.

She pointed to Greely arsenic an illustration of a assemblage wherever not each kid who identifies arsenic being "from Greely" could acceptable into the tiny nationalist schoolhouse there.

"I cognize immoderate radical volition specify assemblage often wherever their kids play hockey," she said. "We often volition gag that it's wherever your LCBO is. Where bash you store for groceries? That's however you place the community."

Hilary Jensen, a genitor of a kid astatine Woodroffe Avenue Public School, called Ostafichuk's remarks "flippant" and said the nearest LCBO is closer to her location than the schoolhouse her kid would beryllium relocated to.

"I americium not present due to the fact that I privation easier entree to the LCBO," she said.

"I americium present due to the fact that fractional the kids successful my neighbourhood are being shipped crossed respective large arterial roads and respective large operation sites to different determination successful the metropolis that is wholly disconnected from wherever I telephone home."

'Deceitful' and 'manipulative'

Many parents have written oregon spoken to CBC since the restructuring plan was first announced successful January with concerns that the board's community-based intentions are not matching reality.

Brent Smith, a genitor connected the borderline of Hintonburg, said the OCDSB's goals "sounded truly good" — but his children would beryllium moved from a school 650 metres distant from location to different up the elevation successful Centretown.

Activities similar that mean his household won't wholly suffer interaction with the community, but the region volition marque it harder to beryllium involved.

"As moving parents, there's a clip crunch involved," helium said.

Elizabeth MacDonald's five-year-old girl is looking astatine a alteration from a 350-metre locomotion to a school three kilometres away.

She called the mode that OCDSB is presenting its program "deceitful" and "manipulative."

"These changes person been presented to america nether the guise of creating much walkable assemblage schools, less transitions for students, and little busing. Our neighbourhood is, successful fact, experiencing the nonstop opposite."

In beforehand of the Woodroffe Avenue school on Friday, MacDonald and about 50 different parents gathered to protestation the changes.

OCDSB is holding assemblage meetings to stitchery feedback connected the bound changes throughout March.