By James Sinclair
Parents of children at Elgin Street public school say they feel betrayed and disappointed after their school trustee put forward options that could have seen their school close.
Albert Chambers, Centretown’s school trustee, proposed at an Oct. 25 meeting of the Ottawa-Carleton district school board that two alternative closure options be considered. One option would have seen Centennial public school close. The other would have seen both Centennial and Elgin schools close.
“He didn’t make any friends with Elgin and Centennial people,” says Bill Filleter, co-chair of the Elgin Street Parents Council. “I feel betrayed by that.”
Chambers drafted the options while Elgin was being considered for closure, but didn’t formally introduce them to the board until after the committee had already voted to keep Elgin open. At that time, Centennial was not being considered for closure.
Chambers put forth the alternatives in a motion to defer closing other schools in the central and near-west area. Board Chair Jim Libbey ruled against the motion. In the end, Elgin was spared while the board voted that other schools in the area — Devonshire, Elmdale and Mutchmor — close.
“He showed a blatant disregard for one of his schools,” says Filleter. “I know you can’t defend each and every school but he certainly didn’t favour Elgin.”
The meeting on Oct. 25 was the culmination of what one trustee called a “marathon debate” in which emotions ran high for both trustees and parents.
Trustee Pam Morse forwarded a motion to close Elgin at around midnight. The board voted 8-3 to save Elgin. Chambers voted against the closure.
“I voted to keep all my schools open because I thought that what we needed was a second look at the central and near-west families of schools,” Chambers says.
A newly-elected board will review all closures before Dec. 18, once they receive population projections from the region.
Only those schools voted to be closed will be revisited in December, although trustees can make a motion of reconsideration for any school. Chambers says if he is elected to the new board he will try to get all closure options in his area re-evaluated.
Parents at Elgin say they don’t think any of the board’s decisions are certain.
“In a few months I wouldn’t be surprised to hear rumours that they’re going to re-evaluate everything they’ve done,” says April Dickson, who attended the meeting with her husband, Sean, and their nine-year-old daughter Kelly.
Chambers says his recommendations were only meant to bring other options to the table. In the option that would have seen Elgin school close, students would have been relocated to Hilson, Devonshire and a reopened McNabb public school.
Other schools the board voted closed were Overbrook, Lamira Dow Billings and Merivale.General Vanier and Grant alternative schools were voted to remain open.