OCDSB to announce major elementary school boundary changes on Friday

Like parents all across the city, Tara Doherty is waiting for boundary changes at elementary schools to be released on Friday.

Doherty lives in Lowertown. Her daughter is in French immersion at Rockcliffe Park Public School. She fears the changes will mean her daughter will be moved to York Street Public School in September 2026 after the new boundaries come into effect.

If that happens — and it won’t be confirmed until Friday — Doherty’s daughter will be uprooted in her final year at RPPS and face multiple transitions in the coming years. Once to York Street Street, once again to Queen Elizabeth Public School for Grade 7 and 8, and a third time for high school.

Moving for middle school was anticipated, but a change in September 2026 was not, said Doherty.

“Rockcliffe Park is our child’s family. To rip our community away from us isn’t fair.”

Other parents are also concerned about the boundary changes at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. A school locator that allows parents and caregivers to enter their address to locate the public elementary school in their neighbourhood under the boundary changes is expected to be posted by noon on Feb. 28 at engage.ocdsb.ca.

Jennifer Allanson’s son, who is neurodivergent, is in Grade 1. At Rockcliffe Park, he has developed his own community of trusted adults and friends, she said.

“I know that every year he’ll have different educators. The issue for us is an additional transition that doesn’t have to happen,” said Allanson.

“We have made the best decision for our child. But to have that decision taken away from us is like a violation.”

Krista Eisner said she and her husband deliberately chose to raise their children in Lowertown and run their businesses in the Beechwood area, knowing our two children could attend Early French Immersion at Rockcliffe Park Public School, just as her husband and his sisters did 40 years ago.

“We are having our choice taken away,” she said. “We arranged our working lives and our home lives around this. And the school board is taking it away.”

The boundary changes are part of a package of sweeping changes to elementary schools released Jan. 10 without many specifics.

Trustee Lyra Evans received a draft map for her zone, which includes Lowertown, last weekend. She notes that there’s even an uninhabited island in the Rideau River marked on her map.

She believes her fellow trustees will have questions about some of the boundaries — where a neighbourhood is bisected by a busy road or a geographical feature such as a river, for instance. But she does not expect significant changes to the boundaries on the draft maps, unless there is a really good reason.

“The maps are not up to interpretation,” said Trustee Lyra. “It will result in a lot of unhappy campers.”

In some cases, 80 to 90 per cent of students aren’t going to their community school, OCDSB director of education Pino Buffone told trustees last month. Some schools — typically those that don’t offer French immersion — have low enrolments. Elementary schools in the public board can have more than 900 students or fewer than 200.

As it stands, many children are bused to schools outside their neighbourhoods, particularly for French immersion, as is the case of the Lowertown students who attend Rockcliffe Park.

Under the plan, more children will attend their community school and be less likely to take a bus. French immersion will be offered at most schools. Middle French immersion will be discontinued. The board’s five alternative schools will no longer run under that model. Students who attend 39 classes for children with special needs will be transitioning back to their community schools.

The plan envisions that all schools will remain open and will have catchment areas that allow for sustained enrolment. Rockcliffe Park Public School is over capacity while York Street Public School is under capacity, for example.

“If you have a school that has 720 spaces, you have to draw a boundary that accommodates 720 kids,” said Trustee Lyra. “One of the goals is not to close any schools — and to make sure that we’re not going to set up any school for failure.”

Just how many children will be moving back to their local school under the plan is still unclear, but it will be in the thousands. Between 6,000 and 8,000 students move schools in an ordinary year. The boundary changes will mean far more moves.

Parent and community groups all over the city have been getting ready to make their cases to the school board.

A letter from the Lowertown community addressed to the school board says about 30 per cent of the students at RPPS are from Lowertown. Many of the signatories chose to live in Lowertown on the understanding that their child could attend French immersion at Rockcliffe Park Public School, while living in a more affordable neighbourhood.

The letter urges the board test out changes incrementally and in areas of the city “where there is greater receptivity to the proposal” and asks that if the OCDSB proceeds with the plan to move Lowertown children from Rockcliffe Park, that all children and families be “grandfathered” at the school.

But that appears to be unlikely on a wide scale. Buffone said last month that school board managers are doing their best to make transitions as seamless as possible and are looking for ways to prevent “quirky scenarios” where students will be required to move multiple times.

“We’re not in a position — physically, operationally or fiscally — to grandfather every single student in their current space,” he told trustees.

Buffone has argued that while the boundary changes will spark short-term pain, there will be long-term benefits. The package of changes is not expected to save money, except for transportation, but they will allow the board to redistribute staff and to improve equity, he said.

Are there any hopes the plan won’t happen? The new boundaries will only come into effect if trustees approve the changes, said Trustee Lyra.

There are a lot of moving parts in the plan, including a decision around the fate of the board’s five alternative schools — Lady Evelyn, Riverview, Churchill, Regina Street and Summit. If these schools are no longer run on the alternative model, it will open up spaces for students in their neighbourhoods. Parents are gearing up for a fight to preserve the alternative schools.

“If we don’t change the programs, then we don’t have to change the boundaries,”  said Trustee Lyra. “If we change the programs, we have to change the boundaries.”

There are already cross-boundary transfers permitted — for example, if parents share custody of a child. But it’s still unclear how these will be resolved under the boundary changes she said.

“I suspect it will be on a case-by-case basis.”

Trustee Lyra says she’s drafting a motion that will look at grandfathering students were there will be numerous transitions within the space of a few years, to be before trustees on March 4.

Meanwhile, some parents say they are contemplating changing addresses or school boards if the school boundaries change.

Trustee Lyra said she’s not going to make her decision based on parents threatening to leave and points out that students are moved if parents “fudge” their address.

“The board can’t make decisions based on people threatening to leave. Otherwise, I would be on both sides of every contentious issue,” she said.

Eisner believes the changes are a good initiative. But the board shouldn’t be able to change the rules halfway through the game for children who have already suffered setbacks because of the pandemic, she said.

“The boundaries have been the same forever,” she said. “How do you pull the rug out from under us?”

Allanson said her son’s needs are paramount and what’s best for him is to remain at Rockcliffe Park.

“They say it takes a village. Every parent knows that. And we have found our village.”