Opening delay for Ontario ‘super school’ sparks protests, provincial review

A student's laptop sits on their desk at an elementary school on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Even when schools across Canada shifted to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rob Hammond’s autistic daughter attended in-person classes in their Ontario cottage country town.

The Parry Sound, Ont., school had made learning spaces available for students with special needs so they could learn and socialize with their classmates and teachers.

Now in Grade 12, Hammond’s daughter is among hundreds of high school students in the community whose only option is online learning for the foreseeable future. Their old school was partially demolished and a new school for students from junior kindergarten to Grade 12 that had been scheduled to open on Sept. 2 remains closed due to construction delays.

The situation has left parents and students angrily searching for answers, from what went wrong to what comes next, and triggered a provincial review of the school board’s governance.

Hammond said he’s “very frustrated” by the delay of the new school’s opening and what he calls a lack of communication from Near North District School Board to explain the next steps.

Hammond, who is also the president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Near North Teachers’ Local, said the uncertainty has left his daughter anxious.

“But she wants to be in school, she’s keen to go to school, she always has been and it’s tough on her,” he said.

The idea to build what’s been described as a “super school” was first discussed over a decade ago with the aim of combining two elementary schools, McDougall Public School and Nobel Public School, along with a community centre behind the Parry Sound High School, Hammond said.

He said the school board assured local residents at the time that the high school and the new school would be in two separate buildings.

Years later, the school board’s trustees decided to include the high school in the project, meaning students of three schools from JK to Grade 12 would all be studying under the same roof, despite the strong objections from parents.

“That was never something that we wanted. So, this has been part of the problem,” said Hammond, who was a teacher at McDougall school for 17 years before becoming the local union president.

Construction of the new mega school began in 2023, but the school board announced last month that it would not be ready to open at the start of this school year.

In a statement released on Aug. 26, the board said that “after thoughtful consideration,” it had decided to move Grade 9 to 12 students to remote learning while the younger students will attend either McDougall or Nobel until the new school is ready.

“We recognize the impact this delay may have on families and are committed to doing everything possible to support students through this transition,” the statement read, promising updates on the situation and adding that mental health support is available to students during the transition.

When asked for comment about its decision, the Near North District School Board said it can’t respond to every reporter’s interview request and instead provided links to its online news page and the school’s website.

In response to the delayed school opening, Education Minister Paul Calandra has launched a “full governance review” of the school board, saying he has asked for a report within 30 days.

“Like you, I am incredibly disappointed, frustrated, and to be frank, angry,” Calandra wrote in an Aug. 29 letter addressed to parents.

“This delay is unacceptable. It highlights the weakness of the existing school board governance structure, and I assure you I am committed to fixing it,” he wrote.

Christie-Lynn Constable, a mother of two high school students whom she homeschooled throughout their elementary years, said remote learning can’t be as efficient as in-person education.

“It’s harder for a lot of students to stay engaged and to learn what they’re supposed to be learning when it’s coming over a screen, not to mention there’s a lot of distraction when they’re trying to do it online,” she said.

She said her daughter, who is in Grade 12, was hoping to get university scholarships through involvement in sports such as hockey and soccer, but with school being closed in her final year, she might lose that opportunity.

“It’s kind of shocking, the lack of accountability,” she said.

The demolition of Parry Sound’s old high school started in July, when it was clear that the construction of the new school wouldn’t be completed by September, according to parents.

“We’re left kind of shaking our heads as to why did you start tearing down the school if we didn’t know that the new school was for sure going to be ready for students?” said Constable.

Some students live in rural areas with unreliable internet connection, while others don’t have the equipment or space they need for remote learning, parents said. The local municipalities have opened up spaces with reliable Wi-Fi for students in need.

In recent weeks, students and parents have attended two separate rallies to protest what they call school board mismanagement. More than a dozen students took part in one gathering outside the new school building last Tuesday.

“Clicking isn’t learning,” read one sign held by a student in a photo shared with The Canadian Press.

Amy Black, an organizer of the first rally, said the goal was to demand transparency.

“Our main concern at the moment is we have no idea how long online learning is going to be because that is having such a psychological impact on our kids,” she said, calling her experience with remote learning during the pandemic “brutal.”

Even though her children attend elementary school and aren’t as affected by the situation as high school students, Black said she is speaking out because the fiasco “really has had a ripple effect on the entire community.”

Hammond, the president of the local teachers’ union, said students aren’t the only ones who have to deal with the consequences of the board’s mismanagement -- teachers will also not have access to the school building to prepare and deliver their lessons.

Even once the new school is ready, there are worries about how well it can accommodate all the students from junior kindergarten to Grade 12.

Parents have raised concerns over space and access to gym facilities in the new building.

Hammond said the new school doesn’t even have dedicated classrooms for music, French or second-language classrooms, which are considered important part of the education system.

“So where are those teachers going to teach? That’s a huge question,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2025.

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press