By Liam Gerofsky
With nearly two months of the school year finished, the Ottawa public and Catholic school boards’ new two-year pilot project to help expelled students still has no staff.
But without any students yet expelled, co-ordinators of the $700,000 program have some time before making a decision.
“We are still in the hiring process…but we have short-listed some individuals,” says Mars Bottiglia, a Catholic school board superintendent and chair of the committee in charge of the project. He says the committee should have the staff chosen before the end of the month.
Initially, the staff will include three full-time workers—one coordinator, one teacher and one youth worker. Bottiglia says the staff may increase as more students arrive.
The program is a joint venture between the public and Catholic school boards and the Youth Services Bureau. Dan Wiseman, a project co-ordinator from the public school board, says the project will mix academics with counselling specific to each student’s needs, such as anger management or drug counselling.
The program is voluntary. But going through it is mandatory for expelled students who want to re-enter regular schools.
The Ontario Ministry of Education provided a grant to fund the project. Bottiglia says a large portion of the two-year $700,000 grant will go toward paying for the staff. The rest of the money will cover furniture, equipment, such as computers, textbooks and other academic resources.
Also, Bottiglia says it will cost $1,000 to assess a student’s specific counselling needs.
Money has also been set aside to rent out room in St. Daniel School on Maitland Avenue to house the project.
St. Daniel School is home to an adult education program run by the Catholic school board. Bottiglia says the project will benefit from computer labs and other educational facilities at the school.
Also, Wiseman says some of the cost will come from funding services such as anger management programs that will help the students. The Youth Services Bureau will assist in this area.
“It’s a very unique partnership between the bureau and the school boards because it is a positive move forward in having the community involved in supporting the program,” says Gordon Boyd, who will be overseeing the counselling side of the program, and is a director in the Youth Services Bureau.
The test project is legislated through the Safe Schools Act passed in 2000 by the Ontario government. However, Bottiglia says it is not the same as seven other strict discipline programs recently undertaken around Ontario in such places as Brockville and Waterloo.
“We weren’t successful in our bid to obtain the [strict discipline] program,” says Bottiglia. “The education ministry felt our original proposal was too expensive.”
After modifying the program by cutting back on the number of students it could serve and the size of its staff, Bottiglia says the province approved.
“The vision of our original program has not been compromised. It still represents the Cadillac version, but on a smaller scale.”
The main difference between Ottawa’s program and the other seven, says Bottiglia, is that Ottawa will not have to follow strict provincial guidelines on how to help troubled students. He says this provides them with a lot of flexibility in providing help.
However, students who use the program must still meet the educational requirements of the province-wide curriculum.
Bottiglia says the program will be equipped to handle a maximum of 20 students at any one time. However, if the limit is exceeded, coordinators will ask the province for additional funding on a per-student basis.
The Ministry of Education will review the project at the end of the year and decide whether to continue next September, says Wiseman.