General Suburban Updates

[orleans_man]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

What are they doing at the vacant lot between the Orleans Park-and-Ride and Jeanne d'Arc? They seem to be building a north-south road through it. I wasn't able to find anything on the development apps.

I believe it is related to this:

Link

[rocketphish]

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is proposing to construct a new four-storey secondary school at 700 Cope Drive in Stittsville. It will be approximately 8,415 square metres in size, and will include 64 classrooms, an outdoor track, two football/soccer fields, a surface parking lot and a bus loop within the site.

Development application:
http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/...appId=__BM01ZM

Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.26814...7i16384!8i8192


Site:






Renderings:

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

Well, the City got them to have an agreement with the Anand Private development to connect a pathway from Bank/Notting Hill to the new Walkley Station... so there will be some foot traffic. The pathway will be between the Swiss Chalet and new Starbucks - through the middle of their parking lot with some additional landscaping and pavement markings in the parking lot to protect/highlight the pathway.

There will also be a new pedestrian crossing built at Bank & Notting Hill when Bank is rebuilt in a few years, along with cycle tracks. This section of Bank will become much more urban in a few years.

[acottawa]

That map really shows how inefficient the 4 school board system is. There are 8 schools on the same street.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by acottawa

That map really shows how inefficient the 4 school board system is. There are 8 schools on the same street.

Yes for sure. I was so shocked when I first moved to Ottawa and elementary kids even in dense areas of the city were bussed to school. The French English thing is crazy here as well as almost all the "English" kids are in French Immersion at least at the elementary level.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Yes for sure. I was so shocked when I first moved to Ottawa and elementary kids even in dense areas of the city were bussed to school. The French English thing is crazy here as well as almost all the "English" kids are in French Immersion at least at the elementary level.

Catholic vs. "public" too.

[CityTech]

The English-French thing makes sense, they're literally separate languages of education. But Catholic schools are stupid and really shouldn't exist.

One issue is that it results in the minority school boards (the French ones and the English Catholic one) getting too large a share of resources resulting in OCDSB being stretched too thin. Notice that OCDSB is only getting 3 out of 7 elementary schools and only 1 out of 3 high schools on that map despite having 60% of the total number of kids. You constantly hear about public schools in the suburbs bursting at the seams, you never hear that about catholic schools or French schools. It's really not fair to the majority.

[acottawa]

At the very least they could be co-located at the same site, sharing sports fields, libraries, auto shop, etc.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

At the very least they could be co-located at the same site, sharing sports fields, libraries, auto shop, etc.

There is a lot of talk about this, but not sure how much concrete progress has been made.

As a first stage you'd likely see the English boards share with each other, and the French boards doing the same.

[Acajack]

It's also quite wasteful on an administrative level, since each board has a team working on transportation led by a director, a team that handles property and facilities led by a director, a strategic planning team, a communications team, an HR team, etc.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There is a lot of talk about this, but not sure how much concrete progress has been made.

As a first stage you'd likely see the English boards share with each other, and the French boards doing the same.

I'm actually opposed to this, as I see it as distracting from the real goal which is to eliminate Catholic education altogether.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by CityTech

I'm actually opposed to this, as I see it as distracting from the real goal which is to eliminate Catholic education altogether.

And I suppose the Catholic school boards are aware that a lot of people have them in their sights, and will work towards these types of "efficiencies" in order to try and stave off the threat to their continued existence.

I agree that even the most optimal level of efficiency will not change the unequal and anachronistic nature of Ontario's Catholic school set-up.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's also quite wasteful on an administrative level, since each board has a team working on transportation led by a director, a team that handles property and facilities led by a director, a strategic planning team, a communications team, an HR team, etc.

My wife is part of the IT group of one of the school boards and the stories she tells of the inefficiencies are unbelievable.

It would be political suicide for a candidate or political party to suggest just having one school board or eliminate the catholic school board.

I would love to get rid of it and I think for many catholics they send their kids there because they went etc and their religious affiliation is not that strong.

In many neighbourhoods the number of school buses running around and the low % of kids walking to school is quite depressing.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's also quite wasteful on an administrative level, since each board has a team working on transportation led by a director, a team that handles property and facilities led by a director, a strategic planning team, a communications team, an HR team, etc.

To be fair, transportation is run by a separate agency that serves all of the boards, so there is an efficiency there.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by CityTech

The English-French thing makes sense, they're literally separate languages of education. But Catholic schools are stupid and really shouldn't exist.

One issue is that it results in the minority school boards (the French ones and the English Catholic one) getting too large a share of resources resulting in OCDSB being stretched too thin. Notice that OCDSB is only getting 3 out of 7 elementary schools and only 1 out of 3 high schools on that map despite having 60% of the total number of kids. You constantly hear about public schools in the suburbs bursting at the seams, you never hear that about catholic schools or French schools. It's really not fair to the majority.

I actually see a fair bit of value in giving people choice of school systems within the publicly-funded system. There are differences in focus between the boards. For instance, the Catholic board tends to put more resources into educational assistants and special needs. Multiple schools within the same community makes sense from that perspective.

I don't think your comment on resources is accurate. All school boards operate under the same funding formula, so the other boards are not siphoning resources from the public system. French and Catholic schools in the suburbs operate under the same class size formulas and are just as likely to be bursting at the seams as public schools.

I think the legitimate point of contention is administrative overlap. There are lots of functions that could be consolidated without threatening Catholic or French education. There already is a fair bit of sharing of sports fields that works pretty well.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by phil235

To be fair, transportation is run by a separate agency that serves all of the boards, so there is an efficiency there.

Thanks for pointing that out. Guess I was out of touch! I don't think that's always been the case but you're right that it's a step in the right direction.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Thanks for pointing that out. Guess I was out of touch! I don't think that's always been the case but you're right that it's a step in the right direction.

No, it's relatively new. I just looked it up - at least in Ottawa, it began in 2007.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by phil235

I actually see a fair bit of value in giving people choice of school systems within the publicly-funded system. There are differences in focus between the boards. For instance, the Catholic board tends to put more resources into educational assistants and special needs. Multiple schools within the same community makes sense from that perspective.

I don't think your comment on resources is accurate. All school boards operate under the same funding formula, so the other boards are not siphoning resources from the public system. French and Catholic schools in the suburbs operate under the same class size formulas and are just as likely to be bursting at the seams as public schools.

I think the legitimate point of contention is administrative overlap. There are lots of functions that could be consolidated without threatening Catholic or French education. There already is a fair bit of sharing of sports fields that works pretty well.

I generally agree with you, but the inequity of having schools with public money for Catholics but the same denied to all other groups would still remain.

That aspect of it is extremely hard to defend.

Note that I am totally conscious of being hypocritical on this one: if I lived in Ontario there is still a 95% chance that I would have sent my kids to French Catholic schools.

Though I never would have marched down the streets or joined the hue and cry if the government had wanted to abolish that system.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by phil235

To be fair, transportation is run by a separate agency that serves all of the boards, so there is an efficiency there.

Not entirely- the OSTA only serves the English boards- OCDSB and OCSB.

I'm not sure if the french boards have a join transportation service.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

Not entirely- the OSTA only serves the English boards- OCDSB and OCSB.

I'm not sure if the french boards have a join transportation service.

Yes they do. There is one for the City of Ottawa for both French boards.

There is also another one for the two French boards in Eastern Ontario outside Ottawa city limits (places like Rockland, Casselman, etc.)