Parents of students at Elgin Street Public School remain divided over the school board’s plan to deal with overcrowding at the elementary school.
In late February the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustees voted to move kindergarten classes from Elgin Street Public School to nearby Centennial Public School to help reduce Elgin’s overpopulation. While some parents support the move others say the details of that decision weren’t clear to them and have launched a petition calling on the school board to reverse it.
“We didn’t make this about us versus them, it’s about what makes sense for September,” says Malaka Hendela, a parent that signed the petition.
There are 15 classrooms at Elgin school, including two portables that take up space in the playground. If nothing is done to address the issues the school will be 145 per cent over capacity based on the board’s staff projections.
After three months of public consultation, some parents say they were under the impression that students in grades 1 through 6 enrolled in the English program at Elgin Street School would be the ones moving to Centennial. But now that they know it’s the kindergarten classes that will be transferred, they say they want the decision reversed.
Anatole Papadopoulos, whose son was originally registered to start kindergarten at Elgin Street this fall, says his concerns have to do with the board’s consultation process leading up to its decision.
He says many parents of the affected kindergarten students were not aware of and did not have access to information and discussions about the move.
Papadopoulos says he had no idea the motion to move kindergarten students to Centennial had been put forward until he read it in the news the next morning.
Other parents whose children remain at Elgin Street School such as Hendela are concerned that the plan could mean larger class sizes for students.
“As a parent how do I sit with the fact that I’m sending my son to a school with a minimum 31 kids in a class, with no information on whether additional support will be available in the classroom,” she says.
Erica Braunovan, the trustee for the Somerset-Kitchissippi area, is the trustee who proposed the motion to move Elgin’s kindergarten students to Centennial. In response to criticism from some parents who felt blindsided Braunovan says she is surprised by that reaction.
She says many ideas were discussed during the consultation process, including suggestions from the board’s staff and the community. She says at the time the motion was passed, her understanding was that the community wanted a temporary solution to the problem.
While moving the kindergarten students would not directly solve the issue of overcrowding, Braunovan says it would buy the school board time to conduct a large review of schools in the downtown area known as an accommodation review.
“An interim decision was needed for September 2016,” she says.
“A comprehensive review would have been the ideal way to address this issue but that takes well over a year to move from planning to implementation.”
Those advocating for this review believe this is the best way to find a long-term solution to overcrowding.
Donna Blackburn, the trustee for Barrhaven-Knoxdale, submitted a motion for the board to reconsider its decision to move kindergarten students from Elgin Street to Centennial because she says it was made in haste. Due to bad weather, there was only one day between when Braunovan submitted her motion and the board’s vote.
“Certain people didn’t get to tell us their point of view,” says Blackburn.
The school board trustees will vote on whether to reverse the decision on March 29.