One of Ottawa’s oldest schools could see some major renovations within the next year if an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board plan to ease overcrowding in the central area of the city is approved.
The proposed “rebuild” of Elgin Street Public School is being described as a priority for the board, according to the Near West Accommodation Review, a recent report outlining concerns and recommendations to deal with current issues facing Ottawa schools.
The Elgin Street school was originally opened as a six-room building in 1890, making it Ottawa’s second school.
After being deemed unsafe and shut down by order of the Ottawa Fire Department in 1953, a modified structure was opened a year later.
The resizing and reconstruction of the Elgin Street school was initially part of the OCDSB's January 2011 "capital priority listing." There are eight schools on the priority list for the OCDSB’s five-year funding plan.
While the Elgin Street rebuild was identified as a priority, a working group has also recommended that the board take steps to reserve land for a future school in a central or near-west location, possibly Centretown or Hintonburg.
Need will arise for a new school as the “city’s policy of intensification continues and many of the older schools become too costly to repair and maintain,” according to the report.
The document also calls for a further review of the Centretown area aimed at “maintaining programming important to these communities as well as assessing the desirability of adding Early French Immersion programming.”
According to school board chair Jennifer McKenzie, whose trustee zone encompasses Centretown and includes such elementary schools as Cambridge Street, Elgin Street, Glashan and Centennial, the proposed rebuild is “mostly to do with the capital planning, so it’s the infrastructure,” rather than a revamping of the school’s programming.
The working group and OCDSB staff have held about 20 meetings to discuss ways to address overcrowding, with a proposed solution that favours a realignment of boundaries.
According to McKenzie, downtown schools are more on the “periphery” of those discussions and should not be as affected as much as the so-called Near West schools.
Board officials are also wrestling with the fact that Elmdale and Devonshire schools west of Centretown, struggled to keep their doors open 10 years ago, are now thriving with much-sought-after EFI programs. Today, there is limited space for enrolment and officials are considering new boundaries for the schools.
According to the working group’s proposed plan, Cambridge Street Public School would be the only Centretown school affected
Under the proposal, children in the English program from junior kindergarten to Grade 6 at Elmdale Public School would be relocated to Cambridge, Connaught and Hilson schools.
Catherine Pacella, co-chair of the Elgin Street Parent Council took part in the accomodation review. She says she has not heard much about the planned rebuild.
"It really is one of those things where it's identified as a priority but there's no date or schedule," she says.
"It's just identified as a priority and then in due course hopefully something will hapen."
Trustees on the committee are scheduled to debate these issues further before the final plan goes to the full board for approval on Jan. 28.