Community Council of Overbrook presentation to
OCDSB Business Services Committee of April 9 2008
Re: Accommodation Process Recommendations – East End Secondary Schools

Introduction

Good evening
I'm Chris Ellis and I'm here this evening to bring to your attention some of the suggestions the Community Council of Overbrook has in regards to the East End Secondary Schools Accommodation Process the OCDSB is embarking on. Although none of the schools are within the boundaries of Overbrook children from our community do attend Rideau - for the most part their designated school - and some more than likely Lisgar HS and quite possibly Gloucester and Colonel By HS. In 2000 (I did try to confirm the date by looking up the minutes on the board web site but they don't go back that far) the community of Overbrook had its elementary school closed. This community is well aware of the impact such a decision has. Because of the consequences to children, families and communities it is hoped that this process will be superior to the one used when Overbrook PS was closed. A process that resulted in green space being lost to the community and the school itself becoming a private school serving children from another more affluent community of Ottawa.

Involve diverse communities

Overbrook has historically been an area of lower income. It has a significant percentage to population of Ottawa's affordable housing. Due to the availability of lower priced rental options in Overbrook and its immediate neighbour communities many new comers to Canada choose and are welcomed in our communities. Recently a section of Overbrook has begun to be gentrified resulting in an increasing component of above average income.
Our Community association is challenged to have members from marginalized groups represented in our membership. So we understand how difficult it is to engage with the full community.
The Community Council of Overbrook encourages the OCDSB to take a proactive approach to involving the diverse communities that make up not only Rideau High School but also Gloucester HS and Colonel By HS populations as members of the ARC as well as participants in the more public consultations.
Some organizations I'm familiar with in the Overbrook area are:

• Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health - www.wabano.com
  I was given the name of Carlie Chase 613-748-0657 ext 220 as someone in that organization that might be able to help find someone from the aboriginal community.
• Islamic Cultural Center - 613-747-1444
  I have not had contact myself however the center is located next to Rideau HS
• Overbrook-Forbes Community Resource Centre - www.ofcrc.org
• City of Ottawa - They may be able to assist the Board in finding representatives for those living in affordable housing.

The Community Council of Overbrook encourages the OCDSB to take advantage of it's own committees to ensure representation

• Special Education Advisory Committee - Could assist in identifying people with special needs focus
• Community Council for Ethnocultural Equity

The Community Council of Overbrook also suggests that translation at least for material seeking members to participate in this process be included when budgeting for the Consultation Plan. It is believe the OCDSB have had Multicultural Liaison Officers at other open house information sessions to facilitate communication/translation and commend the board for that and expect the open house sessions for this review will also include this service.
The Community Council of Overbrook would be very pleased to receive the Board's communication plan for seeking members for the Accommodation Review Committee of the East End Secondary Schools Accommodation Process.

How will the board deal with disparity in school council capacities of the various schools?

In researching this component I visited the school websites www.colonelby.com, www.gloucesterhs.ocdsb.ca, and www.rideauhs.ocdsb.ca. Although many of the communities I spoke to earlier do not have easy internet access, web sites and email are increasingly taking on importance in communication.
The Colonel By HS site is the only one that has a registered domain name and appears to be hosted on a non-board server. This may free it from the restrictions of the OCDSB internet policies. It also means that information can be added to the site from non-board locations. But of greater importance it has a school council section where minutes and other information can be posted. That there may be someone active on the school council with the skills needed to post information to the web site. It was this web site that allowed me to get the minutes I refer to later. I will point out that there has been no minutes posted since December 2007.
Gloucester HS site does not have a specific section for the school council. There is a short information about when council meetings are in the "What's New" section. Although I got the December 10, 2007 council meeting minutes from the site I was not able to locate it again. Fortunately I had downloaded it earlier.
Rideau HS site does not have a specific section for the school council. In fact the Home, About Rideau, and Contact links did not work.

School Council capacities are very important for a process such as this.
Rideau HS school council had 5 parents 8 if you include everyone at its January school council meeting and 4 parents 8 if you include everyone at its February meeting. And attendance the last two years has not been much better.
Gloucester HS had a total, which includes staff of 17 people in attendance at their December 10 2007 school council meeting.
Colonel By HS had a total, which includes staff of 20 people in attendance at their December 5 2007 school council meeting.

Include Lisgar HS

The Community Council of Overbrook believes Lisgar HS should be part of this process. There is the potential that for some students redirection to Lisgar HS would be the best option. As well the boundaries of Rideau HS and Lisgar HS mingle and the option for adjustments to them should not be precluded from the process.

IB program

The Community Council of Overbrook suggests it would be helpful if the implications of the IB program were to be fully articulated. By this I mean what are the criteria for the recognition by the international accreditation institution. Can the program be relocated to another school and if so what relocation would entail and the costs be?

Chris Ellis
Community Council of Overbrook

The above part of this report was written and submitted to the OCDSB before the April 4 deadline for written submissions.

The second part was written and verbally presented to the board after seeing the Staff submission, which only became available after the submission deadline.

New to me was the inclusion of possibility of changing to a grade 7 to 12 structure.

Community Council of Overbrook presentation to
OCDSB Business Services Committee of April 9 2008
Re: Accommodation Process Recommendations - East End Secondary Schools

Good evening
I'm Chris Ellis representing the Community Council of Overbrook. I'm going to take a few moments to raise some issues arising from Report No. 08-074 to Business Services Committee, which then might be addressed when this report is dealt with.

On page 2, number 5.
I'm assuming in non board parlance "grade structures" would be "Change high school to grades 7 to 12"
If a change to a 7 to 12 grade structure is to be part of this school closure study I think you should consider new terms of reference for this process. A possible outcome of going to a 7 to 12 high school in this area could be the subsequent closure of one or more middle school and/or closure of one or more elementary schools in this area.
I would be interested to learn if grade structure was a consideration in phase one of this study.

Same page 6.1
As you are aware from the Community Council of Overbrook's written submission we believe Lisgar Collegiate should be part of this process.
To limit the opportunity of effected communities and the scope of options to be considered because it is believed to be "totally unwieldy" I think speaks more to a lack of will and commitment to true consultation than to anything else. Especially if such a major change as going to a grade 7 to 12 model at the secondary level is to be contemplated.
If it is necessary to formally "debrief" the first experiences with Accommodation Review Committees then you may wish to consider delaying this process to do the debriefing.

Same page 6.2
States, " it is highly doubtful that students redirected would opt to attend their newly designated
School." This is true but it leaves much unsaid. Rightly or wrongly and I believe wrongly Rideau HS is not viewed as a destination school. This situation I lay wholly at the feet of OCDSB and its failure to address the needs of Rideau HS.
However the reason the community Council of Overbrook wishes to have Lisgar Collegiate participate is that one of the possible outcomes is the closure of Rideau HS. To fully explore that scenario, redirection of some students to Lisgar Collegiate needs be an option.

And my last comment on the report this evening is in regard to Appendix A 3.3 Specific Mandate
In conducting this particular review, the Board has indicated the following special instructions:
1. Balance enrolments amongst the named schools by means of school closure, boundary amendments, balancing programming or amending grade structures in a manner that provides the greatest long term stability but is sensitive to student disruption.
I have reviewed the motion that empowered this Accommodation Review. Nowhere did I find reference to amending grade structures. And lets be clear, amending grade structures means going to a grade 7 to 12 high school model which will have significant ripple effects to the middle and elementary schools in this area. I hope very much that during the discussion later this evening I will learn how this option came to be part of a recommended "Specific Mandate"

In closing I wish to leave you with the most important point of our written submission.
"The Community Council of Overbrook encourages the OCDSB to take a proactive approach to involving the diverse communities that make up not only Rideau High School but also Gloucester HS and Colonel By HS populations as members of the ARC as well as participants in the more public consultations."