By James Sinclair
A new group of Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustees could keep a number of downtown schools from closing next year.
Many of the new trustees say the board may need to reverse closure decisions and re-examine the issue in the new year. David Moen, trustee-elect for Innes/Beacon Hill-Cyrville, and Joan Spice, trustee-elect for Somerset-Kitchissippi, say the board needs to do an expanded study of its options, especially in the central and near-west area, which includes Centretown.
But delaying school closures will make the board ineligible for millions in provincial grants needed to build new schools in rural and suburban areas.
While Moen says he’s not against all school closures, he says trustees need to be cautious when deciding which schools to close.
“It doesn’t cost a lot to get rid of a school now, but the costs to replace it later are huge,” he says.
Spice says she expects at least some closure decisions will be overturned in December.
The board decided to close Devonshire public school in a tight 6-5 vote in October.
Two of the trustees who voted to close the school, however, weren’t elected to the new board. They will be replaced by Myrna Laurenceson and Margaret Lange, both of whom received the support of a parents’ group opposed to downtown school closings.
Five new trustees will join seven returning board members on Dec. 1. Many of the new trustees agree that choosing the right schools for closure should take precedence over the end-of-year deadline for provincial grants.
“It will take as much time as it needs to take. If it needs to go beyond Dec. 31, then it will,” says Laurenceson, who unseated Alex Getty, a supporter of school closings, in Baseline/Knoxdale-Merivale.
The previous board made Dec. 18 the deadline for a review of school closure decisions. Re-elected trustees who favoured school closings are expected to oppose new trustees who’d like to further study the issue.
“If you don’t close schools, what are you going to cut instead? Because you’re going to have to cut something,” says Pam Morse, trustee for Gloucester-Southgate/Osgoode. “There are 6,000 students in portables in the suburban and rural areas and we will not get one cent of new grant money to build any schools for those kids.” Morse says that reversing closure decisions would be akin to starting the process all over again. Moen disagrees.
“I don’t think we’ll be throwing away the work that has been done so far, I think we’ll be adding work,” he says.
The board will have a new population-projection study prepared by the region in December.
The long-awaited study is to help the board decide which schools should close and which schools should remain open.
While the review process could save some schools from closing, other schools not currently slated to close could be put back on the chopping block.
Morse says she thinks schools that were voted to remain open in October, such as Elgin Street school, need to be reconsidered for closure.