waterloowarrior
Apr 2, 2009, 10:32 PM
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/04/02/ot-090402-schools.html
Board may close Colonel By, Rideau and Gloucester schools
Last Updated: Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 2:08 PM ET
CBC News
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board said a decline in enrolment in Ottawa's east end could force it to close schools.
The board said it's considering closing Colonel By, Rideau and Gloucester high schools.
Nearly 400 people attended a public meeting at Colonel By Secondary School in Gloucester Wednesday evening to discuss the possible closure.
Some of them arrived with yellow signs that read, "Colonel By counts, don't mess with success."
"This school has a record of generating successful graduates," said Dan Burke, whose children attended the school several years ago. "It doesn't make any sense at all to let that go to waste."
Paula Brant said her son was hoping to attend the school in a few years.
"It's a very well-run school … good reputation … good teachers," she said. "It draws people to our neighbourhood."
Paul Tessier, the head boy at Colonel By, agreed.
"I was speaking to a man before the meeting had started and I asked him what his connection to Colonel By was," said Tessier. "He said, 'None.' He said he moved into the community five years ago, but he feels like still he's a part of Colonel By."
Tessier said his community hopes to encourage that feeling as they fight to keep their school open.
A public meeting to discuss all of the school board's closure options is to be held in three weeks at Rideau High School.
The school board is expected to make a final decision by January.
Colonel By, Gloucester facing school closure
Article online since December 21st 2007, 14:18
Read all 5 comments about this article / Comment on this article
http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-171236-Colonel-By-Gloucester-facing-school-closure.html
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is reviewing the boundaries of five east-end high schools and trustees say the study will likely lead to the closure of either Colonel By Secondary School, Rideau, or Gloucester High School as early as September 2009. The review is the first step in a two-stage process to equalize uneven high school enrolment.
The first phase is a review of decade-old attendance boundaries that have left Colonel By Secondary School overcrowded while the classrooms at Cairine Wilson Secondary School are less than three-quarters full. It will cover these schools as well as Rideau and Gloucester in the Beacon Hill area and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School in Chapel Hill.
The second phase will focus specifically on Rideau, Gloucester and Colonel By, with a view to potentially closing one of them to boost attendance at the other two.
John Shea, trustee for Orléans-Cumberland, initiated the process.
“I couldn’t sit and wait and see continuing declining enrolment at Cairine Wilson for no real reason, when students who should be going to that school are going to other schools,” he said. “If you take a look at the map, there’s really no rhyme or reason to it. It’s sort of a flim-flam of different attendance boundaries that don’t make a lot of sense for the Orléans that is today.”
Earlier this month school board planners presented seven potential boundary revisions to parents at an open house. If approved by trustees in February, 67 students slated to attend Colonel By and Gloucester next year could be redirected to Cairine Wilson and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. By the end of the four-year project, the school board predicts 738 students could be rerouted.
“That would result in significantly more empty spaces in the area for closure,” said David Moen, trustee for Innes and Beacon Hill-Cyrville, which covers Colonel By and Gloucester. “It would be draining kids from one area to fill up another area.”
If the board accepts the recommendations, boundaries will be adjusted for the next school year. But, Moen said, only students going into Grade 9 would be affected. Current high school students would be allowed to stay where they are already attending school – at least for now.
“The way the process is designed is that a school will close by September 2009, and that will be either Rideau, Gloucester or Colonel By” said Shea.
The looming school closure has some parents worried.
Following the Dec. 11 open house, the chair of the Gloucester High School Council, Dan Van der Grient, said, “This boundary review that they’re going through, in our opinion, could lead to the closure of Gloucester because they’re taking away a significant portion of the boundary away from Gloucester into Cairine Wilson.
“With what they’re looking at doing within the next three years, we’ll be down to 43 per cent [capacity]. So, to me, it makes the decision of which school you’re going to close very easy.”
Van der Grient said he is worried the two-stage process would just prolong the time it will take to close a school. “If that gets dragged on the school will kind of just self-destruct. People won’t want to go there because they know it’s on the auction block.”
He said he would rather see the boundary changes put in place at the same time a school is closed.
But Moen said the board decided to separate the process into two phases to address the urgency of the declining enrolment at Cairine Wilson.
The current first phase of the accommodation review will end Feb. 12, 2008 when the board chooses whether to accept proposed boundary revisions. In the spring, a committee will be formed to study potential school closure options.
Board may close Colonel By, Rideau and Gloucester schools
Last Updated: Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 2:08 PM ET
CBC News
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board said a decline in enrolment in Ottawa's east end could force it to close schools.
The board said it's considering closing Colonel By, Rideau and Gloucester high schools.
Nearly 400 people attended a public meeting at Colonel By Secondary School in Gloucester Wednesday evening to discuss the possible closure.
Some of them arrived with yellow signs that read, "Colonel By counts, don't mess with success."
"This school has a record of generating successful graduates," said Dan Burke, whose children attended the school several years ago. "It doesn't make any sense at all to let that go to waste."
Paula Brant said her son was hoping to attend the school in a few years.
"It's a very well-run school … good reputation … good teachers," she said. "It draws people to our neighbourhood."
Paul Tessier, the head boy at Colonel By, agreed.
"I was speaking to a man before the meeting had started and I asked him what his connection to Colonel By was," said Tessier. "He said, 'None.' He said he moved into the community five years ago, but he feels like still he's a part of Colonel By."
Tessier said his community hopes to encourage that feeling as they fight to keep their school open.
A public meeting to discuss all of the school board's closure options is to be held in three weeks at Rideau High School.
The school board is expected to make a final decision by January.
Colonel By, Gloucester facing school closure
Article online since December 21st 2007, 14:18
Read all 5 comments about this article / Comment on this article
http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-171236-Colonel-By-Gloucester-facing-school-closure.html
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is reviewing the boundaries of five east-end high schools and trustees say the study will likely lead to the closure of either Colonel By Secondary School, Rideau, or Gloucester High School as early as September 2009. The review is the first step in a two-stage process to equalize uneven high school enrolment.
The first phase is a review of decade-old attendance boundaries that have left Colonel By Secondary School overcrowded while the classrooms at Cairine Wilson Secondary School are less than three-quarters full. It will cover these schools as well as Rideau and Gloucester in the Beacon Hill area and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School in Chapel Hill.
The second phase will focus specifically on Rideau, Gloucester and Colonel By, with a view to potentially closing one of them to boost attendance at the other two.
John Shea, trustee for Orléans-Cumberland, initiated the process.
“I couldn’t sit and wait and see continuing declining enrolment at Cairine Wilson for no real reason, when students who should be going to that school are going to other schools,” he said. “If you take a look at the map, there’s really no rhyme or reason to it. It’s sort of a flim-flam of different attendance boundaries that don’t make a lot of sense for the Orléans that is today.”
Earlier this month school board planners presented seven potential boundary revisions to parents at an open house. If approved by trustees in February, 67 students slated to attend Colonel By and Gloucester next year could be redirected to Cairine Wilson and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. By the end of the four-year project, the school board predicts 738 students could be rerouted.
“That would result in significantly more empty spaces in the area for closure,” said David Moen, trustee for Innes and Beacon Hill-Cyrville, which covers Colonel By and Gloucester. “It would be draining kids from one area to fill up another area.”
If the board accepts the recommendations, boundaries will be adjusted for the next school year. But, Moen said, only students going into Grade 9 would be affected. Current high school students would be allowed to stay where they are already attending school – at least for now.
“The way the process is designed is that a school will close by September 2009, and that will be either Rideau, Gloucester or Colonel By” said Shea.
The looming school closure has some parents worried.
Following the Dec. 11 open house, the chair of the Gloucester High School Council, Dan Van der Grient, said, “This boundary review that they’re going through, in our opinion, could lead to the closure of Gloucester because they’re taking away a significant portion of the boundary away from Gloucester into Cairine Wilson.
“With what they’re looking at doing within the next three years, we’ll be down to 43 per cent [capacity]. So, to me, it makes the decision of which school you’re going to close very easy.”
Van der Grient said he is worried the two-stage process would just prolong the time it will take to close a school. “If that gets dragged on the school will kind of just self-destruct. People won’t want to go there because they know it’s on the auction block.”
He said he would rather see the boundary changes put in place at the same time a school is closed.
But Moen said the board decided to separate the process into two phases to address the urgency of the declining enrolment at Cairine Wilson.
The current first phase of the accommodation review will end Feb. 12, 2008 when the board chooses whether to accept proposed boundary revisions. In the spring, a committee will be formed to study potential school closure options.
