OCDSB votes to approve contentious elementary school program review

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. (Tyler Fleming / CTV News Ottawa)

Ottawa’s largest school board has approved a controversial overhaul of elementary schools Tuesday night, which includes a slate of changes to programs, grade structures, and boundaries.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Elementary Program Review will consolidate elementary school programming into Enhanced English and French Immersion, eliminate Middle French Immersion and close Alternative Schools. Approximately 1,500 more students than normal will be required to change schools in September 2026 due to the changes.

“This recommendation is the culmination on the enormous amount of work from our staff and the enormous amount of input and feedback of the entire OCDSB community across the city of Ottawa,” Trustee Lynn Scott said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s special board meeting.

The review passed nine votes to three, with trustees Amanda Presley, Nili Kaplan-Myrth and Lyra Evans voting against.

The board launched the program review last spring, saying the goal was to offer programming in English and French at each school and to have “community-based education” for students.

The proposal had been met with months of debate after parents and trustees took issue with changes to school boundaries, cuts to specialized programs and the closing of alternative schools.

Ultimately, OCDSB staff reversed some of the changes, including modifications to grade structures at some of its schools. Trustees also voted last week to maintain special education programs after 26 programs in the primary gifted program, the language learning disabilities program (primary and junior), and the learning disabilities semi-integrated program (junior and intermediate) were to be phased-out.

Presley moved a motion Tuesday evening that would require staff to determine the viability of modifying the phase-out of alternative schools in a report to be presented to the board by the fall of 2027, but trustees voted it down after Director of Education Pino Buffone expressed concerns it would make the review unworkable for staff.

Parents had protested the move to close alternative schools in recent weeks, with many saying the closure of alternative schools would negatively impact learning of special needs students if required to attend classes in a mainstream school.

“We know that students are not being met where they need to be in our mainstream classrooms,” Presley said.

Kaplan-Myrth argued the review does not properly address disparities in the district, especially for students with special needs, racialized children, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

“We have not found the best option for all students,” she said. “I want on the record that we have let down these students.”

The review will see changes to the grade structures at 18 schools and alterations to the boundaries at dozens of schools. Under the plan, the last cohort will enter Middle French Immersion in September 2026 and finish Grade 8 in 2021.

Alternative schools will be phased out in 2035.

The last cohort of Middle French Immersion students will enter Grade 4 in September 2026 and complete Grade 8 by the end of the 2030-31 school year.

Students in Middle French Immersion will, in most cases, remain at their current school.

The last cohort of Junior Kindergarten students starting in September 2025 will complete Grade 6 at the end of the 2032-33 school year, and Grade 8 in 2034-35.

Staff say the four K-Grade 6 Alternative schools and one Grade 7-8 school will begin to transition to community schools in September 2026.

Now that trustees have approved the Elementary Program Review, Buffone says work will begin on Wednesday to prepare to implement the plan.

“We’re very excited. This allows us, as a district, to offer a dual-track in virtually every school – Enhanced English and French Immersion, which is something that has really moved the organization forward,” Buffone told CTV News Ottawa.

“Really grateful to the board of trustees for not an easy decision making process, but ultimately something that will mobilize our resources as a district to have equity of access to both official languages in the country.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Pringle and Shaun Vardon