By James Sinclair
A new population projection study expected later this month has parents hopeful that the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board will reverse its decision to close Devonshire school.
The study, being prepared by the region, will provide new projections on the number of school-aged children expected to be living in various parts of the city.
Parents and community groups say they hope the study will reflect what they see as a population boom in school-aged children in the Devonshire area, which encompasses west Centretown and most of Hintonburg.
“We’re going to be busting at the seams,” says Nancy House, a Devonshire parent and co-chair of the school council. “There will simply be no room for these children (at other schools).”
The board approved a motion in October allowing trustees to revisit closure decisions in December, once the study is complete.
The study could give parents and community groups one last chance to convince the board to save schools such as Devonshire, which will otherwise close by the end of June 2001.
School board staff based school closure recommendations on the region’s 1996 demographic study, which projected a 2.8-per-cent decline in school-aged children in the near-west area by 2006. Many parents and politicians, including the new City of Ottawa’s mayor-elect Bob Chiarelli, have argued that the old demographic study is outdated.
Regional planners say while they don’t yet have the results of the new study, they presume the projections will be higher because of Ottawa’s recent growth.
New residential developments being planned within the Devonshire area, including one at LeBreton Flats, could increase the number of families with children living in the area.
“The staff analysis of student population in the centre of town didn’t include any students coming from LeBreton Flats, even though we are now forecasting new housing to start on the flats in two-and-a-half to three years,” says Albert Chambers, the outgoing school trustee for Somerset-Kitchissippi.
Robert Walters, a property developer and planner with the National Capital Commission, says that while office development will likely begin at LeBreton Flats within three years, residential housing will start later. He estimates more children will live in the housing developments now that the NCC has decided to change some planned condos into townhouses.
The newly elected school board will meet no later than Dec. 18 to revisit closure decisions. Devonshire has lost its most passionate supporter in Chambers, who promised to table a motion to save the school in December if he was re-elected.
Joan Spice, who will take over as trustee on Dec. 1, says she will review the demographic study and talk to school councils before making a motion to reverse closure decisions.