Concepts for Public Consultation June 20th

I'm not sure if I can answer all the questions at this hour.
First off, I've edited Concept D in my initial post to reflect that this includes Cambridge dual-track. I forgot that when I was typing it up in the first place.

Fisher keeps being used in these scenarios because it's the school building in the area that has the greatest number of AVAILABLE classrooms, currently 11. An available classroom by the board's definition is one that doesn't have a homeroom assigned to it. As we've been discussing recently with respect to Cambridge, those AVAILABLE classrooms may be in use for non-homeroom functions such as computer labs, special ed classes, French rooms (in English schools), instructional space for ESL or other withdrawal programs, etc. The working group has asked for the current uses of the classrooms in the schools under consideration.
Fisher also has the potential for about 10 classrooms to be created out of other space in the school: the cafeteria and kitchen are the logical places to start, and possibly things like drama rooms. If all the EFI overflow from Elmdale and Devonshire went to Fisher and all the existing students stayed there, there would be about 1,075 students requiring 47 homerooms in 2016. Staff think they might be able to get 45.
I honestly don't know what to answer about Hilson. At the last working group meeting the trustee asked if we had fully discussed Hilson as a solution and the group couldn't even agree on whether we had. It was put on the shelf where it remains with other potential solutions to be brought down and re-examined once we exhaust other routes.
Boundaries: I would think that a Connaught/ Fisher boundary would probably be similar to the current Devonshire/Elmdale boundary, unless the area between Parkdale and Holland just all becomes an area where families could choose which school to go to.
Kelly's points: Elmdale submitted a scenario a while ago which had them keep portables and redirect English. I asked recently about the number of new classrooms that could be gained by reconfigurations in the school and was told "zero". If my memory serves me, the numbers were fairly tight, and there was strong sentiment against adding any more portables. It may come up again, especially if there's a way of making it work for a couple of years and then revisiting things later.
Magic Bullet: I'm stumped again on how to answer that. Lots of people love the idea of Connaught dual-track, lots of people love the idea of a larger EFI at Fisher Park. Both are on the table now, and everyone should let the working group know what you like and what you hate.

I went as an observer to the meeting last night. There was a big public turnout. The meeting went from 7-11pm. For the last hour the various scenarios were discussed. My observation - obviously clouded by tiredness and bias - is that Connaught dual-track is losing steam. The Devonshire reps told the bigger group again that it is a popular option for Devonshire parents, but the Elmdale reps don't want it portrayed as an option for Elmdale. It is not their neighbourhood and not their neighbourhood school. It seems the agenda around the table is to push forward with Fisher Park and Cambridge as solutions.

The Dalhousie Community Association rep and the Cambridge St reps are extremely against Cambridge being included. A lot of important arguments were made by everyone. My takeaway from the meeting is to not push any of your feelings onto the Devonshire reps (or your community reps, who should also be included in any discussions), but to use the email address and email in your ideas, concerns, solutions. While it is good to let the Devonshire reps know how you are feeling, it is the rest of the table that needs to be convinced and the only way to do that is via the email address and by coming out on June 20th and filling in comment forms then...

NearWestReviewPublicComments@ocdsb.ca

From what I observed, I think there are strong feelings from Elmdale on how Fisher Park could be workable and that affects many of the 7&8 students. Those families are not happy to be told they could be moved out.

Elmdale mentioned keeping portables as an option and Lil said this morning that she thinks 70+% of Elmdale families support keeping portables. That is short term though and still leaves them no room to grow. But if it allows Devonshire to solve it's problem and use Connaught, then we could be off the hook when Elmdale outgrows their portables

It seems to me that the Elmdale reps do not fully understand Concept C in its current form. There have been over the last few weeks a lot of variations of scenarios involving dual track at Connaught, and some had Elmdale kids going there. One of their objections to having Elmdale kids at Connaught is that it was outside their neighbourhood and required crossing both Holland and Parkdale.

BUT, what doesn't appear to be clear to them, is that the Concept C as currently proposed does not involve any Elmdale kids going to Connaught. Devonshire kids only would go to Connaught and most seem perfectly happy to do so. The only difference with Option C from the other scenarios that Elmdale seems to like is that there will be more (100-250 depending on the variation) 7/8s at Fisher Park. They have clearly stated that they don't like using Fisher Park for JK-6 if it means a top-heavy 7/8. It should be noted however, that the JK-6 at Fisher in Concept C is not insignificant. It would be approximately 250-275 kids by 2016. Far larger than the JK-6 would be at Cambridge (roughly 130 at best, including kids from Elgin St).

I have an idea that might win support from Elmdale for Concept C: if we push for more middle school capacity downtown (which arguably is needed with Mutchmor adding 11 classrooms and current enrolment at Glashan nearing capacity) then Devonshire kids could go to a downtown middle school and that would remove 100 7/8s from Fisher Park by 2016. Glashan is already nearing capacity before this bubble gets to middle school. This would also address my concern (which I know I keep repeating) that Devonshire kids are the only ones at Fisher Park that don't automatically go on to Nepean high school (people between Bayswater and Holland have a choice). It would make far more sense for our kids to go to a downtown middle school with other kids that will go on to Glebe for high school.

It would likely have to. I was looking at the Zone maps and was surprised to find almost no middle school capacity in the core. It's kind of weird and I wonder where it all went (was it just McNabb?) Reopening McNabb would pull the Devonshire kids who are headed towards Glebe while the rest could continue to Fisher/Nepean. I'd have to think about it a bit but at first glance it does have a good ring to it.

Not commenting for or against - just trying to understand...
If Glashan IS full, then with Martha's new suggestion of diverting some EFI 7’s and 8’s downtown, concept C would involve:
A medium EFI at Fisher, a medium EFI at Connaught, a small EFI at Cambridge, and reopening/creating a new school at McNabb?
Surely that last piece would trigger a full ARC. Maybe that is inevitable anyway.

Nicholas is right, stated capacity is 386, but we've learned that capacity is NOT an exact match to fullness. That being said, the 2012 enrolment I have in front of me is 353. This is with the 7/8 ENG and gifted ENG kids but only the Grade 7 EFI and MFI so far. Next year when there are 7 & 8s in those programs, there will be another 85ish kids.
The current bubble of EFI demand would seem to be highest in around grade 2/3, so there will need to be some changes somewhere downtown. I'll ask again about Glashan projections.