OCDSB proposes to scale back elementary school overhaul

CBC

03-04-2025

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After weeks of protest from parents, Ottawa's largest school board is scaling back several elements of a sweeping restructuring of its elementary school system.
The revised school boundary proposal released Thursday by the public Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) would require fewer students to switch to a new school in September 2026.
Under the new plan, the only schools divided into separate kindergarten to Grade 3 and Grade 4 to Grade 8 configurations would be those that currently exist.
Parents and caregivers will also soon be able to request exceptions that could "allow their children to remain at their current school based on specific circumstances," according to a report on the proposal.
The revised plan would still see both English and French immersion offered in almost all OCDSB elementary schools, although five will remain English-only and six French-only, said director of education Pino Buffone.
The initial plan was to have zero English-only elementary schools, but the grade reconfigurations required to make that happen were going to create "hardships" for families, Buffone said.
"There were concerns about the split-up of siblings quite so young. So we've been able to go back to the original proposal [and] adjust some of those school configurations," he said.
The OCDSB currently has 30 single-track elementary schools: 15 that are English-only and 15 that are French-only.
Some specialized classes retained
Middle French immersion would still be phased out starting in September 2026, as would the board's five alternative schools, which would transition to community schools.
More than two dozen specialized classes would also be phased out, although the revised proposal retains — for now — the board's primary special needs program and its junior general learning program.
The latest boundary proposal also means some schools might now be "a little lower populated than we hoped," Buffone added, with others "a little higher populated."
Ever since the initial plans for the OCDSB's largest restructuring in decades came out at the end of February, parents have been expressing their discontent by holding rallies and making their feelings clear at board meetings.
The public will be able to weigh in online about the revisions until April 24, with a chance for delegations to provide direct feedback to the board on April 22.
The final recommendations are set to go to the board's committee of the whole for approval on May 13.