‘Blindsided’: OCDSB parents shocked by school boundary changes

Changes to elementary school boundaries at Ottawa’s largest school board released Feb. 28 have left some parents shocked and vowing to fight.

It was expected that the boundary changes would affect thousands of students at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Under the proposed changes, an estimated 11,000 students may change schools starting in September 2026, compared to an annual average of 6,000 to 8,000 students.

As part of the proposed changes, 30 schools will see a change to their grade configuration. There will be six more pairs of kindergarten to Grade 3 schools and Grade 4 to 8 schools, meaning an extra transition for students. However, the kindergarten to Grade 3 schools feed to their partnered Grade 4 to 8 school, which will allow cohorts to remain together, according to the school board.

Parents had been bracing for change. But some say the changes were far from what they expected.

The entire boundary change exercise has been sold as a way to keep as many students as possible in their communities, but the actual boundary changes have resulted in some students being moved outside their neighbourhoods, said Ashley Baddeley, who has two children at Woodroffe Avenue Public School, about 200 metres from her house.

“You could hear the kids playing at recess,” she said.

Under the plan, Woodroffe Avenue Public School students from junior kindergarten to Grade 3 will be moved to Regina Street Alternative School, up to three kilometres away for some students and in a different neighbourhood.

Regina Street is separated from Baddeley’s neighbourhood by the LRT corridor, several busy intersections and ongoing construction. It means families will never be able to walk or bike to school, she said.

“We were completely blindsided. There was no inkling of anything like this,” said Baddeley.

“We have two schools in our community that are closer than the proposed school. It was so completely backwards we thought it was a mistake. It was supposed to keep communities together. Instead, it’s tearing them apart.”

Woodroffe Avenue already has a dedicated kindergarten wing and a yard for kindergarteners. Baddeley wonders what will happen to it under the new plan.

The same question has been raised by parents at Pleasant Park Public School, which will also become a Grade 4 to 8 school. Pleasant Park also has a kindergarten wing designed specifically for small children, said parent Haleigh Davies.

“The toilets are a foot off the floor.”

Under the plan, Davies’ son, now in junior kindergarten, would be taking a bus to Riverview Alternative for two years, then return to Pleasant Park.

Her daughter will remain at Pleasant Park through Grade 8. However, Davies points out that the school does not have science labs or a music room suitable for middle school students.

Simmi Dixit, a parent at Devonshire Community Public School, said she knew boundary changes were coming. She had been following the issue closely, but was shocked on Feb. 28 when she learned her daughter would be sent to Cambridge Street Community Public School.

“The reason we moved to this neighbourhood 10 years ago was because we wanted our child at this school,” said Dixit. “Some families are going from walking 400 metres to walking a kilometre and a half.”

The school board has conceded that the changes are “not insignificant,” but says the disruption needs to be balanced against the reasons for proposing the changes and the benefits, said the school board in the report released Feb. 28.

Some parents agree that there are benefits, but they feel betrayed by the boundary changes.

“The school is supposed to be the hub of the community,” said Davies. “It’s the opposite of what they are doing.”

The school board argues that the changes will result in “improved feeding patterns”  between schools that will avoid splitting cohorts of students to different schools as they transition between schools. That will lay the groundwork for “more coherent families of schools,” said the OCDSB.

School board planners have worked the proposal around keeping all elementary schools open. As it stands, some schools have enrolments of over 900 students or under 200. School utilization factors range from a low of 28 per cent to a high of 161 per cent, according to school board statistics. Part of the plan was to better balance school populations.

Meanwhile, two new schools will be added to the mix — a new secondary school for Riverside South and an elementary school for the east urban community.

As well, if the plan is approved, the board’s five alternative schools will be slowly phased out and school buildings used by Lady Evelyn, Riverview, Churchill, Regina Street and Summit will begin to transition to either kindergarten to Grade 6 or kindergarten to Grade 3 community schools.

Under the plan, any students currently enrolled in the alternative program and any junior kindergarten students registering next September would continue in the program until they have completed Grade 6 or Grade 8.

The alternative program would wrap up in the 2032-2033 school year, when the last cohort of students starting this September completes Grade 6. Those opting to continue to Grade 8 at Summit Alternative will be finished in the 2034-2035 school year.

Other parts of the system will also be affected. It is expected that there will be a higher-than-usual number of staff transfers.

“As well, the school board will have to work through the boundary changes and new grade configurations to determine their full impact on current and future childcare services, including those provided by third parties,” the OCDSB said in a report released Feb. 28.

In the short term, projecting enrolment by program and school will be more challenging, added the board. While the plan aims to create schools that offer both English and French immersion, there is some concern that enrolment in the English program may be relatively low.

“It is difficult to predict how the proposed model and number of dual track schools (French immersion and English) will affect program choice,” said the school board.

“As more predictable enrolment trends emerge, it may be necessary to review some schools and programs again within a few years.”

A decision on the elementary program model, including the boundary changes, will be made by trustees in April.

Families can provide their feedback through an online survey available until March 25.  There will also be in-person community meetings on March 6 and 17, and a virtual meeting on March 24. Details are available on engage.ocdsb.ca.