Post by vickysmallman on Feb 3, 2013 21:21:09 GMT -5
Update from Devonshire School Council Accommodation Review Subcommittee
The Ottawa Carleton District School Board Early French Immersion (EFI) program is a victim of its own success, at least in our neighbourhoods. Both Devonshire and Elmdale are bursting at the seams, and won’t be able to meet the demand next year, and especially once Full Day Kindergarten (FDK) is implemented in 2014. So the board has launched the Near West Accommodation Review to study the problem and come up with an interim solution for 2013 and then a longer-term solution in 2014.
On January 23, the board held a public meeting to discuss 4 options for the interim solution currently under consideration, and to hear other ideas from community members. Staff are receiving input on the interim solution until February 6 and will issue a report and recommendation at the end of February. The trustees will debate the recommendation on March 5.
All of the documents relating to the review are available online at: www.ocdsb.ca/sch/as/Pages/NearWest.aspx
The 4 solutions presented on January 23 are here: www.ocdsb.ca/sch/as/Near%20West%20Docs/InterimSolutionsInfoPackageFinalJan23rd%202.pdf
All of the options under consideration will have a deep impact on our school community. The School Council has struck a subcommittee to look at the options, and to develop and bring forward other ideas. We have held several subcommittee meetings, one public meeting, and had discussions at our monthly school council meetings (last Tuesday of every month). We have two representatives on a school board committee, tasked with bringing the Devonshire perspective forward and constructively building solutions. Many Devonshire parents participated in the OCDSB’s forum and have shared their views over email.
In December, the subcommittee identified some core values that we felt should form a component of the long term solution. They included: a sense of community, which is very much tied to children’s ability to walk to school; access to child care solutions; programs that are adequately and equally resourced, available to all who want access; and long-term solutions that are sustainable in the longer term. Those early discussions have helped inform our approach to the solutions proposed by the OCDSB.
Information on Devonshire’s activities regarding the Near West Accommodation review can be found here: devonshireparents.wordpress.com/accommodation-review/
Our conclusions
While our strong preference would be to have all students remain at Devonshire in 2013 while we explore options for the long term, we recognize that this is simply not possible. It is very clear that there is no one solution that will work for all Devonshire families. However, we did feel that it is important to give the OCDSB a clear sense of which options seem the most viable, the least disruptive, and reflect our commitment to community, walkability, and a sustainable long-term solution.
What we present here are options the subcommittee feels could be viable – remember there are no guarantees the trustees will choose either of them, and no guarantee the accommodations we are requesting will be granted. It’s up to the Devonshire parent community to let the OCDSB know what could work. We also outline our reasons for considering other options as non-viable.
Viable Options
PREFERRED OPTION:
Redirect current Devonshire PS and Elmdale PS Gr 5 EFI Students to Fisher Park
PS for Grade 6.
Key points: This option will only work if students from both schools make the move. There are real concerns about the small cohort when compared with the numbers in grades 7 and 8 – approx. 60 grade 6 students, 500+ grade 7 and 8 students – and the effects that this would have on the students both academically (middle school has a completely different academic structure from elementary school) and socially. We have been assured by Board staff and the Principal of Fisher Park that they will work with parents to deal with these concerns and ensure a positive experience for Grade 6 students.
Students would move as a cohort, and Fisher Park offers some real opportunities to enhance the learning experience. As the students would be at Fisher Park for three years, there is time to build a stronger attachment to the school and school community.
Fisher Park is a walkable option for most students in both catchments, and access to child care is not an issue with this age group.
ALTERNATIVE PREFERRED OPTION:
In the event that portables are added to Elmdale: a temporary boundary change at Connaught, providing JK students access to Full Day Kindergarten, including access to before and after-school care.
Key points: We are less than comfortable with a solution that impacts the youngest students, who are transitioning to school for the first time. Our community has a serious lack of child care options, so any solution involving the JK students needs to address this. Disrupting schools for that cohort means disrupting child care arrangements that parents may have had in place for some time. By providing access to FDK as well as extended care, the child care impacts are taken out of the equation. A full day program would mean the board would not need to provide mid-day buses. As the french immersion curriculum does not actually begin until SK, it makes sense to integrate the Devonshire cohort into the existing Connaught cohort rather than establishing separate half day and full day programs.
This option is preferable to moving a single class of Devonshire Grade 6 students to either Fisher Park or Connaught. The class would be too small to integrate smoothly into the Fisher Park community. Having one EFI class for one year at Connaught makes little sense either – although they would be together, we are concerned that the short duration and the separate program would leave them excluded from the rest of the Connaught community. The lack of ability to effectively integrate into both school communities would no doubt impact the students academically as well.
Questions and concerns we hope the board will address:
- impact on Devonshire students’ access to SK half-day child care and before and after school programming at the Connaught daycare. Note: Devonshire School Age Program would lose JK students, but has agreed to look into the possibility of offering those spots to the SK cohort if the board is willing to consider this proposal. However, the impact of this on the Connaught daycare would need to be investigated. We don’t want this decision to result in the net loss of child care spaces in our community, including before and after-school care.
NON-VIABLE OPTIONS
1. Relocating Devonshire JK students to any area school other than Connaught. Until we know what the longer-term solutions will be, we feel it the simplest solution would be to keep this cohort together. In addition, we are concerned that this will place undue hardship on the children and families who require daycare. Most of the families have been on the centralized waiting list for years. Moving JK students to area schools, which have yet to be disclosed, will be challenging for those who have not registered on that school’s daycare waiting list. To allow the Devonshire School Age Program to still provide daycare for the transferred JK children who would still have spots in the program would require numerous logistical considerations which would need to be worked out.
2. Putting a portable at Devonshire: Devonshire is short of playground space as it is, and portables are extremely costly. We also have serious concerns about the impact of portables on students’ learning and the school environment.
3. Devonshire Daycare Space: While some have raised the suggestion of using or sharing space currently occupied by the Devonshire School Age Program, having explored this idea, it is simply not possible given the timing, licensing requirements, and complex and lengthy procedures required. We are also concerned that it would impact the daycare’s ability to maintain or expand its programming in the future.
What you can do
We are encouraging all parents to send their views to the OCDSB at NearWestReview@ocdsb.ca, and we hope you will express strong support for our preferred options. Please feel free to paraphrase or use any of the arguments and points we make above, or send in your own perspective.
If you’d like to keep up to date about what is happening, please make sure you visit devonshireparents.wordpress.com/ and participate in the discussion about the longer-term solutions at devonshireparents.freeforums.net/
The Ottawa Carleton District School Board Early French Immersion (EFI) program is a victim of its own success, at least in our neighbourhoods. Both Devonshire and Elmdale are bursting at the seams, and won’t be able to meet the demand next year, and especially once Full Day Kindergarten (FDK) is implemented in 2014. So the board has launched the Near West Accommodation Review to study the problem and come up with an interim solution for 2013 and then a longer-term solution in 2014.
On January 23, the board held a public meeting to discuss 4 options for the interim solution currently under consideration, and to hear other ideas from community members. Staff are receiving input on the interim solution until February 6 and will issue a report and recommendation at the end of February. The trustees will debate the recommendation on March 5.
All of the documents relating to the review are available online at: www.ocdsb.ca/sch/as/Pages/NearWest.aspx
The 4 solutions presented on January 23 are here: www.ocdsb.ca/sch/as/Near%20West%20Docs/InterimSolutionsInfoPackageFinalJan23rd%202.pdf
All of the options under consideration will have a deep impact on our school community. The School Council has struck a subcommittee to look at the options, and to develop and bring forward other ideas. We have held several subcommittee meetings, one public meeting, and had discussions at our monthly school council meetings (last Tuesday of every month). We have two representatives on a school board committee, tasked with bringing the Devonshire perspective forward and constructively building solutions. Many Devonshire parents participated in the OCDSB’s forum and have shared their views over email.
In December, the subcommittee identified some core values that we felt should form a component of the long term solution. They included: a sense of community, which is very much tied to children’s ability to walk to school; access to child care solutions; programs that are adequately and equally resourced, available to all who want access; and long-term solutions that are sustainable in the longer term. Those early discussions have helped inform our approach to the solutions proposed by the OCDSB.
Information on Devonshire’s activities regarding the Near West Accommodation review can be found here: devonshireparents.wordpress.com/accommodation-review/
Our conclusions
While our strong preference would be to have all students remain at Devonshire in 2013 while we explore options for the long term, we recognize that this is simply not possible. It is very clear that there is no one solution that will work for all Devonshire families. However, we did feel that it is important to give the OCDSB a clear sense of which options seem the most viable, the least disruptive, and reflect our commitment to community, walkability, and a sustainable long-term solution.
What we present here are options the subcommittee feels could be viable – remember there are no guarantees the trustees will choose either of them, and no guarantee the accommodations we are requesting will be granted. It’s up to the Devonshire parent community to let the OCDSB know what could work. We also outline our reasons for considering other options as non-viable.
Viable Options
PREFERRED OPTION:
Redirect current Devonshire PS and Elmdale PS Gr 5 EFI Students to Fisher Park
PS for Grade 6.
Key points: This option will only work if students from both schools make the move. There are real concerns about the small cohort when compared with the numbers in grades 7 and 8 – approx. 60 grade 6 students, 500+ grade 7 and 8 students – and the effects that this would have on the students both academically (middle school has a completely different academic structure from elementary school) and socially. We have been assured by Board staff and the Principal of Fisher Park that they will work with parents to deal with these concerns and ensure a positive experience for Grade 6 students.
Students would move as a cohort, and Fisher Park offers some real opportunities to enhance the learning experience. As the students would be at Fisher Park for three years, there is time to build a stronger attachment to the school and school community.
Fisher Park is a walkable option for most students in both catchments, and access to child care is not an issue with this age group.
ALTERNATIVE PREFERRED OPTION:
In the event that portables are added to Elmdale: a temporary boundary change at Connaught, providing JK students access to Full Day Kindergarten, including access to before and after-school care.
Key points: We are less than comfortable with a solution that impacts the youngest students, who are transitioning to school for the first time. Our community has a serious lack of child care options, so any solution involving the JK students needs to address this. Disrupting schools for that cohort means disrupting child care arrangements that parents may have had in place for some time. By providing access to FDK as well as extended care, the child care impacts are taken out of the equation. A full day program would mean the board would not need to provide mid-day buses. As the french immersion curriculum does not actually begin until SK, it makes sense to integrate the Devonshire cohort into the existing Connaught cohort rather than establishing separate half day and full day programs.
This option is preferable to moving a single class of Devonshire Grade 6 students to either Fisher Park or Connaught. The class would be too small to integrate smoothly into the Fisher Park community. Having one EFI class for one year at Connaught makes little sense either – although they would be together, we are concerned that the short duration and the separate program would leave them excluded from the rest of the Connaught community. The lack of ability to effectively integrate into both school communities would no doubt impact the students academically as well.
Questions and concerns we hope the board will address:
- impact on Devonshire students’ access to SK half-day child care and before and after school programming at the Connaught daycare. Note: Devonshire School Age Program would lose JK students, but has agreed to look into the possibility of offering those spots to the SK cohort if the board is willing to consider this proposal. However, the impact of this on the Connaught daycare would need to be investigated. We don’t want this decision to result in the net loss of child care spaces in our community, including before and after-school care.
NON-VIABLE OPTIONS
1. Relocating Devonshire JK students to any area school other than Connaught. Until we know what the longer-term solutions will be, we feel it the simplest solution would be to keep this cohort together. In addition, we are concerned that this will place undue hardship on the children and families who require daycare. Most of the families have been on the centralized waiting list for years. Moving JK students to area schools, which have yet to be disclosed, will be challenging for those who have not registered on that school’s daycare waiting list. To allow the Devonshire School Age Program to still provide daycare for the transferred JK children who would still have spots in the program would require numerous logistical considerations which would need to be worked out.
2. Putting a portable at Devonshire: Devonshire is short of playground space as it is, and portables are extremely costly. We also have serious concerns about the impact of portables on students’ learning and the school environment.
3. Devonshire Daycare Space: While some have raised the suggestion of using or sharing space currently occupied by the Devonshire School Age Program, having explored this idea, it is simply not possible given the timing, licensing requirements, and complex and lengthy procedures required. We are also concerned that it would impact the daycare’s ability to maintain or expand its programming in the future.
What you can do
We are encouraging all parents to send their views to the OCDSB at NearWestReview@ocdsb.ca, and we hope you will express strong support for our preferred options. Please feel free to paraphrase or use any of the arguments and points we make above, or send in your own perspective.
If you’d like to keep up to date about what is happening, please make sure you visit devonshireparents.wordpress.com/ and participate in the discussion about the longer-term solutions at devonshireparents.freeforums.net/
