When parents start planning to send their children to elementary school, they will now have fewer options after the Ottawa Carleton District School Board voted in favour of phasing out the alternative education program.
The decision made May 13 put to bed a contentious issue the board had been debating for months. But shortly before the vote was made, a few dozen parents and their children rallied outside Westboro’s Churchill Alternative School to plead with the board not to cut what they say is an essential program. They held signs reading “This Isn’t Fair” and “ALT saved me. Now I’m saving ALT.”
Unlike a traditional mainstream classroom, the alternative program puts students in a less competitive environment where only comments – not grades – are shown on report cards, sports teams are for everyone, and group accomplishments are praised over personal achievement.
Pino Buffone, the OCDSB’s director of education, said a “culture shift” was needed in the board and said focus should be put on creating community-based schools which cater to everyone.
The OCDSB is also looking for ways to deal with a possible $20 million shortfall in its budget. It also still owes the province $11.1 million from its last budget, and is now having its finances investigated by the Ontario government. Axing the alternative program is expected to save $1.2 million in transportation as many of the students are bused from other parts of Ottawa.
The elementary program review also includes boundary changes aimed at redistributing students to under-capacity schools. Ten facilities in the Kitchissippi catchment will experience redrawn borders to offer more French immersion options, including Cambridge, Hilson, Churchill, and D. Roy Kennedy.
To lessen the impact to existing students, exemptions will be made when space allows and if it doesn’t impact the viability of programs at other schools. The new changes were passed 12-3.
Kitchissippi Trustee Suzanne Nash, who voted in support of the shift, noted it was long overdue. The board decided to remove alternative schools because the matter was first debated in 2009.
“It was a very, very difficult decision. I think you need to look back again when the two boards amalgamated. The alternative program was something that was with the Ottawa Board and it dates back to the ‘80s,” Nash told KT. “I think when you look back, the original intent was to create these schools to bring forward innovative practices. We see a lot of these practices now within our schools.”
Nash also noted how enrollment was down and only a small fraction of OCDSB kids were part of alternative programs.
“We had five schools with a little bit under 800 kids. But Broadview, for instance, can accommodate 900 children,” she said. “You have 20 or 30 minivans arriving each day, [from] as far as Dunrobin.”
But parents of students who attend alternative schools don’t agree with those assumptions. Emily Addison, whose son Calum Hyde goes to Churchill, said she blamed board staff for combining the removal of alternative schools with other recommendations.
Addison first heard of alternative schools while doing a placement during her Bachelor of Education. Fast forward a decade and a half, the Westboro-area parent decided to enroll Hyde in the program because she wanted something that wasn’t so structured, grade-based and competitive.
“It’s just like how you or I might thrive better in different working environments. We also know that high school students and university students do well in different learning and environments. It’s the same for younger kids,” said Addison, who is also co-chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s Alternative Schools Advisory Committee.
“It’s been a powerful option for families to inform their children’s path in life. There are also many kids that come to the alternative program who experienced educational trauma and felt dumb and stupid in mainstream classes,” she added. “There were so many testimonials and presentations and delegations over the last number of months, talking about how the program saved their child’s life and how their child started to thrive again in school.”
Alternative schools will be gradually phased out, with the last cohort of Grade 8 students graduating in the 2034–35 school year. Nash said she hopes lessons from that method of education can be incorporated more broadly.
“I know CHEO has their own school for junior and senior kindergarten which is for students with special needs. They work with us at our Crystal Bay Centre for Special Education and at Clifford Bowey Elementary School,” said Nash. “A lot of the pushback and concern came from parents with children who are special needs or neurodivergent. We have a lot of brick and mortar schools. Maybe there is a way we can work with CHEO.”
Nash also noted the possibility of working with Indigenous groups.
“One particular school, Regina, has beautiful Mud Lake and a wonderful green area for children to learn about nature and so forth,” she said. “There is hope for other opportunities.”
Those comments weren’t satisfactory to Addison, who said CHEO’s program is for students with complex needs, which is not always the case for kids who are looking for different options.
“The beauty and magic of the alternative program is it’s for all kids. Families whose kids don’t have special needs choose this program because they love the program and the philosophy and culture that it creates,” she said.