5c. Pam Kent, Community Member

March 21st delegation

I am here today because I believe that many years ago a mistake was made – a historical boundary decision that has had a significant impact on the Manor Park neighborhood. A boundary decision that can explain the poor uptake of Manor Park students at Rideau high school and can most certainly explain why Gloucester will see equally poor uptake, if not more so from our neighborhood. Obviously boundaries have to be put somewhere, but one would like to hope that there is some logic in these decisions.

You have in front of you a map of Manor Park and the geography that defines our neighborhood. To the south, the Beechwood cemetery, to the north, the Ottawa River and to the east, NCC greenspace. You will see that the ONLY adjacent neighborhoods are those of Rockcliffe, Lindenlea and New Edinburgh, so it is no wonder that Manor Park identifies as part of this larger community. As neighbors do, kids from this larger community play on the same sports team, belong to the same clubs and are part of the same peer groups and you would assume, go to the same high school. This is why it is puzzling to say the least that Birch St (which is the red line on your map) is the high school boundary line – essentially annexing Manor Park kids from their logical cohort. All kids to the west of Birch St. (including those living on west side of Birch St. itself) have Lisgar are their designated high school, whereas all kids to the East had Rideau (and now Gloucester as their designated school). This boundary decision was simply wrong. But please do not be mistaken, it was NOT wrong that Manor Park kids were sent to Rideau and Rockcliffe/Lindenlea/New Edinburgh kids were sent to Lisgar, but rather that they were sent to different schools. In fact, if proximity plays into the decision for a designated high school, and it most certainly should, then Rideau should have been the designated high school for all of these neighborhoods or at very least Manor Park, Rockcliffe and Lindenlea. Perhaps the fate of Rideau would have been different had this in fact been the case. But that is history and it can’t be undone. But what can be undone is this poor boundary decision.

Gloucester may have room for Manor Park students but they will not go there. At the Feb 15th meeting I presented results from a survey we conducted in the Manor Park neighborhood with 164 respondents.

Results clearly showed that our neighborhood identifies with Lisgar as their community high school – almost 90% of respondent expressed this sentiment. Manor Park families have a strong historical connection with Lisgar having sent their kids to Lisgar for over 4 decades.

When asked what they would do if Lisgar did not remain an option? Close to 100 respondents (80%) indicated they are prepared to move their children out of the OCDSB if Lisgar is lost as a high school option for Manor Park. I am not sure if this is a concern to the board, Manor Park is a small neighborhood so perhaps the loss of our tax revenues is so negligible that it is inconsequential. The Catholic and French boards will most certainly be the beneficiaries.

Even if the tax revenues don’t matter, I would like to hope that the lives of the people, the children, who this decision affects, do matter.  With no access to Lisgar for our neighborhood, siblings will be forced to attend different schools – this will be happening to my family.

 Neighbors, friends and peer groups will be separated

 And we are left with Gloucester as our only OCDSB option that is geographically further, considerably longer and more difficult to access by bus, impossible to access safely by bike, and not even remotely part of our community.

But in the end, these kids, our kids, are really just numbers. Numbers that are needed at Gloucester and not needed at Lisgar.

Before ending I would like to take a moment to speak to the capacity issues at Lisgar. There are two points that I would like to make:

The first point: Manor Park is a small neighborhood and the reality is that most kids leave the OCDSB after grade 6. Some have returned to attend Colonel By and Lisgar, but many remain with the Catholic and French school boards. This is unlikely to change. Don’t forget that the most significant change with the amendment would be addition of kids in the English program from Manor Park to Lisgar. How many kids in Manor Park are in English programming only? I am guessing this number is very small. With this in mind, I don’t think intake at Lisgar would look much different than it does today. Regretfully I do not have access to the city’s data but having had two children at Lisgar, I have to guess that really this amounts to only a handful of students per year. Yet for that handful of students – attending Lisgar means everything to them.

The second point is that capacity at Lisgar is likely to improve in the very near future. Implementation of the geographical model for the gifted program is imminent. In deciding on this issue, I would ask the board to consider whether or not it is fair that some children (those if the gifted program) are afforded the ability to choose which gifted centre they attend, and many clearly choose to travel great distances to attend Lisgar, when kids is regular programs are not afford the same luxury of choice. The board will be making a long term decision for the Manor Park neighborhood based on short capacity constraints. I ask if it is not possible find an interim solution for the small handful of kids.