By Heather Miller
Some trustees are calling into question the decision to keep open five elementary schools because it was made without benefit of a much-anticipated demographics study.
In October, the school board voted to close Devonshire, Elmdale, Lamira Dow Billings, Merivale, Mutchmor, and Overbrook. But trustees recommended the decision be revisited in December, when a new study was set to be released.
Opponents to school closures had argued that new families were moving to the centre and near-west areas where closures were targeted, and expected the report to reflect what they saw.
When the board met to revisit the issue, it was with five new trustees — three of whom had been endorsed in civic elections by parents’ groups opposing closures — and no new study.
They voted 8-4 to grant a reprieve to every school but Overbrook.
“I think it was essentially several trustees who based their election campaigns on it and followed through,” says Russ Jackson, trustee for Alta Vista/Rideau-Rockcliffe, which includes Overbrook.
He says while Ottawa is growing, it’s unreasonable to expect large numbers of young families to move to the central and near-west areas.
While the firm hired to conduct the new demographics study wasn’t ready to release a report in December, its director did give the board an overview of early results.
Tom McCormack of the Centre for Spatial Economics gave a range of projections from an ongoing boom to a decline to historical norms, but wouldn’t speculate on where newcomers may end up settling.
“It’s a question of where they (the city) allow buildings to go, not where I think they might go,” says McCormack.
The city controls development — where new residents will go. But Carol Christensen, manager of research at Ottawa’s planning department, says it’s too soon to speak for what the new city might do.
Some trustees say they want to keep schools in the core open for the time being because of this uncertainty.
“There may be reasons for closing schools in the next couple of years, but for now we didn’t have the justification,” says Joan Spice, trustee for Somerset/Kitchissippi.
Spice, whose zone encompasses Centretown, proposed the motion to keep schools open. She says in the past she’s witnessed a commitment by the city to attract families to the core.
The old school board based their decision to close schools on a 1996 study that projected a decline in growth in the near-west area. The only numbers-by-area available at the December presentation were also from 1996.
“The ’96 numbers were accurate for ’96,” says trustee Myrna Laurenceson, who represents Baseline/Knoxdale-Merivale. “Where there’s so much growth, it’s dangerous to use outdated numbers.”
She and Spice share the concern that, once schools in the core are closed, it may be almost impossible to get land back to accommodate any increase in school-aged kids.
Efforts to close schools inside the Greenbelt were intended to meet provincial requirements to receive money to build new schools in suburbia.
Lynn Scott, a trustee representing West Carleton/Goulbourn/Rideau for a third term says the numbers she saw at the December presentation didn’t suggest that there would be downtown growth beyond earlier projections.
She also says she’s spent most of her time as a trustee looking for money for new schools in her zone, which now needs one-and-a-half schools to get students out of portables.
Dec. 31 was the deadline to apply for provincial funding. Any decisions based on the new population study will not impact the next school year.
“It may affirm the decision to close schools, or it may reaffirm the decision to keep schools open,” says Scott. “Either way, it’s too late to re-open the decision for September (2001).”
Fact box:
The issue: The validity of the decision to keep centre and near-west schools open.
What’s new: Some trustees question whether the reversal was justified since it was made without benefit of an anticipated population study.
What’s next: The report may be released in March, but it’s too late to get extra money from the province to build new schools for the fall.