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When school trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth received a copy of the letter, she inquired with the children’s hospital.
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“I would like to clarify that the letter that was shared was not authored by CHEO physicians,” wrote CHEO president and CEO Vera Etches. “One of the individuals referenced in the letter is retired, while the other is a psychologist and not a medical doctor. The letter does not represent the views or position of CHEO or CHEO physicians.
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“Additionally, we would like to note that we did not receive a copy of this letter prior to it being shared.”
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Kaplan-Myrth, a family physician, dismisses the idea that moving students will precipitate a youth mental health crisis.
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“Children are resilient,” she said. “Parents should be saying ‘Instead of going to school A, you will be going to school B.’ Your role as a parent is to say: ‘It will be great.’”
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The stated goal of the school board boundary review was to keep as many students as possible in their neighbourhoods, and to rebalance school population to keep all schools viable.
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Some schools, often those that offer French immersion, have healthy enrolment. Other schools, often those that offer English only, have low enrolment. It’s a patchwork arrangement that dates back more than 25 years and has created inequities in the system.
Many parents agreed that equity was important. But when the new boundaries were released on Feb. 28, some learned their children were being shifted to schools several kilometres and sometimes several schools away from their neighbourhood. In one example, students currently at Severn Avenue Public School on the north side of the Queensway will have to cross an overpass in order to get to Pinecrest Public School to the south.
“Our confidence has been shattered by this process,” said Elizabeth MacDonald, the parent of two children at Woodroffe Avenue Public School. “This was a spreadsheet exercise, not an exercise in keeping kids close.”
The model would see some schools change to a kindergarten-to-Grade 3 model. Some have argued that their children would have to change schools as often as four times. Siblings will be separated in different schools. Before and after-school care may have to be changed, an onerous matter for new parents who have already spent a year or more on childcare wait lists.
“The rubber hits the road when we send out specific maps of where students will be,” director of education Pino Buffone said. “That’s when people come to a realization and they reconcile the overarching principles with their specific reality.”
One of the big draws of living in the Broadview neighbourhood is that families are friends with the neighbours, kids play on the street with the neighbours’ kids, and the community is walkable, said Tsergas, Spark Advocacy’s CEO.
“The priority for us, and for thousands of other parents, is the well-being of our kids and avoiding the stress and havoc this will wreak on lives, schedules, routines, people’s jobs, the extracurricular activities of kids.”
Trustee Kaplan-Myrth has been inundated by emails disputing the boundary changes. But the more difficult matter for her has been getting the opinion of underserved communities who might benefit from reorganized boundaries.
“We’re seriously failing a group of students right now and have been for years,” said Kaplan-Myrth, who has been visiting schools in her zone.
“We have a two-tier system. I want to hear from community members who have not been able to organize and put up websites.”
Parents argue they were kept in the dark about what would really happen with only a few weeks to present feedback and there have been no fully-costed plans released for retrofitting schools, so trustees can’t make an informed decision.
MacDonald said she took part in every phase of the public participation segment since the elementary review was first brought up last spring.
“We know we were being manipulated. We don’t believe that they have been transparent and forthcoming,” she said.
Meanwhile, in combing through the OCDSB archives, parents found what they believe to be the smoking gun that proves the plan is a done deal.
The letter from Lynn Scott, board chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, to then-minister of education Stephen Lecce, dated April 2024, warned Lecce that the elementary review would likely stir up concerns, which would land at Queen’s Park.
“As you know, the prospect of any change for elementary schools can arouse excited anticipation for some families and deep anxiety for others, some of whom may reach out to you as Minister with questions and concerns,” Scott wrote Lecce.
The letter also makes mention of the Ministry of Education’s Pupil Accommodation Review Guidelines, which sets minimum standards for reviewing student spaces in schools. Some are arguing that the proposed boundaries have been “gerrymandered” to dodge triggering a provincial review.
The rules have been followed very carefully, Kaplan-Myrth said in response. “We are trying to make every school as viable as possible and we are following those rules to a T.”
Emma Mohns, a Knoxdale parent, was among those to submit a complaint to the Ontario ombudsman. She had a preliminary call with the ombudsman’s office on March 17 to determine whether there was a case to move the complaint forward.
“Parents feel shut out,” she said. “This oversight should have been part of the process.”
Zoe McKnight, a Devonshire Community Public School parent, also filed a complaint to the Ontario Ombudsman, arguing that OCDSB trustees do not have a mandate for this magnitude of change.
“This will affect families for a generation. They gave us two months to think about it and called it a done deal,” said McKnight, who contends that a decision should be delayed until the next municipal election in the fall of 2026. “It has been a bit of cloak and dagger process.”
It has been heartwarming to hear parents who are fighting against boundary changes also mention the special education cuts that are part of the elementary review, said Kate Dudley Logue, the vice-president of community outreach with the Ontario Autism Coalition.
“Certainly, I think we’re all fighting for what we feel is best for our kids.”
That being said, there are some differences in what parents are fighting for, Dudley Logue said.
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“These special education classes are the only way many students with complex disabilities are able to be at school safely and successfully at all,” she said. “And when those programs are gone, the implications for every other student with special needs who will need these placements in the future are pretty grim. Our fight is not just about the kids right now, it’s about the kids that come next.”
Buffone is hopeful adjustments can be made to the plan.
“You move one string, another six move. There are some things we won’t be able to do without undoing the elements of the plan or elements of the overarching principles,” he said.
As a trustee, Donna Blackburn said she must always make the best decisions for the most people. Trustees are assigned zones, but they have to vote for the good of the entire system.
In any accommodation review, there will always be changes, as long as they do not cause undue negative impacts on others, said Blackburn.
“At the end of the day, if I don’t do what you wanted me to do, that doesn’t mean I’m not listening.”
Tsergas said that he’s heard the word “equity” thrown around a lot lately.
“True equity is not about disadvantaging or harming anyone to make another person or group better off. That’s what this proposal does,” he said. “True equity is about fairness and justice.”
McKnight concedes that there might be unintended consequences associated with fighting the proposal, or getting it delayed. One of those consequences might be that the Ministry of Education steps in. (In 2018, Nova Scotia dissolved school boards and created a council of appointed administrators.)
But another unintended consequence has been that the boundary changes proposal has created hundreds of new advocates for public education, McKnight said.
“Before this, most parents were not reading the school board budget line-by-line. They are now.”
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