Leslie Park Public School Parents' Council Observations And

Leslie Park Public School Parents’ Council Observations and Recommendations Western Area Pupil Accommodation Review October 2016 Leslie Park Public School (LPPS) is an educational setting that is able to support children who thrive in and need a smaller community school. Whether in a regular or modified English program, the school provides an excellent environment for children’s education. A number of Leslie Park students are individual learners who would not have done well in a large school, were unable to perform in a French immersion setting or are special needs students that need the context of a smaller school. Over one-third of our students have IPRCs. We also have a number of ESL, Inuit and First Nations students that are supported in a welcoming environment. In terms of inclusion and diversity in a small school setting, it would be difficult to find a comparable environment where children from over fifty ethnic nationalities and diverse learning needs embrace a barrier-free and positive learning environment. We urge the Board of Trustees to keep Leslie Park Public School open, and to consider the following concerns in their deliberation of the recommendations proposed in the Western Area Pupil Accommodation Review: 1) This is third time over the past decade that the Board is recommending closure for Leslie Park Public School. During the last set of closures, which saw the shuttering of Qualicum and Christie schools, those neighbourhoods have had their children bussed to Briargreen to boost enrollment at that school. With the new walk zones, the majority of children in Qualicum, Ryan Farm and Morrison Heights are within the 1.6km walk zone of LPPS. If the school zones were redrawn for those neighbourhoods, these students would be able to walk to school at Leslie Park instead of being bussed to Briargreen, redirecting resources currently allocated to cover busing costs back to program delivery. This would also be in alignment with the goals set out in establishing the new walking zones and with the current Ottawa Public Health information campaign, shared on the OCDSB’s website and communicated via the LPPS October Newsletter, which targets the significant benefits of walking and cycling to school: Link: https://bboard.ocsb.ca/bbcswebdav/institution/OCSB%20Corporate/Elementary%20%28JK- 6%29%20Schools/St.%20Isidore%20CES/School%20Web%20Site/Documents/2013%20- %202014/Public%20Health%20Walking%20to%20School.pdf 2) The neighbourhoods around Leslie Park Public School are in transition. Many of the single- family homes that were purchased new by the first waves of baby-boomers in the late sixties and early seventies are finally coming into the real-estate market as over-housed retirees sell their large family homes, and young families are moving in. New condos and infills are being built as part of the neighbourhood being a City of Ottawa designated area for urban intensification. A rapid transit bus corridor along Baseline is also under development. Within the current walk zone of Leslie Park Public School, two new residential complexes are being developed. Qualicum Crossing condominiums at Guthrie and Baseline have just put out 227 units on the market for their first phase, of which approximately 40% will be two-bedroom units. The developer will be adding an additional three buildings with a larger footprint in the coming years for the planned second phase. Links: http://qwcrossing.com/image-gallery http://webcast.ottawa.ca/plan/All_Image%20Referencing_Site%20Plan%20Application_Ima ge%20Reference_Application%20Summary%20D07-12-15-0184.PDF http://qualicum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Planning-Rationale-11.26.2015-0811.pdf At Baseline and Sandcastle, four apartment towers with 492 units are under development by Brigil. The majority of rental units in this development are two bedroom units. Links: http://www.brigil.com/communaute/22-baseline http://www.brigil.com/upload/communities/22/brochure/39/brochure.pdf To close Leslie Park Public School during this time of major neighbourhood transition, urban renewal and intensification would be short-sighted. It is more likely that there will be a natural increase in the numbers of children who could and would attend LPPS, rather than a decrease (which the board projects in the school statistics without any justification). The LPPS parents’ council recommends adjusting the LPPS school zone to include Qualicum and Morrison Heights neighbourhoods as they are part of the Leslie Park school walk zone. 3) Briargreen Public School is an open-concept school that will likely not be an appropriate learning environment for special needs or autism students. The Board report recommends building four additional closed classrooms for the Briargreen school facilities, but it is difficult to understand how this can be accomplished in the current layout, which begs the question of when these new spaces will be created and how. Are students to be placed in portables until such time that the Board can tender and execute a major construction contract? The required renovations would also be a major capital cost, which would likely require an additional source of identified funding. Relocating students from LPPS to Briargreen would not result in an improved learning environment for any of the students concerned, and will more likely result in an unsatisfactory situation for a number of years until major building upgrades could be actioned by the Board. 4) The traffic patterns during school start and end times on Greenbank Road are very heavy with commuters from Barrhaven. This is a major concern for Leslie Park parents that would need to have their children walk to Briargreen during rush hours. Traffic on Baseline Road between Greenbank and Cedarview is much calmer, as there are five pedestrian-responsive traffic lights in the five blocks between the Queensway Carleton Hospital and Baseline with slower traffic patterns. The Board should consider that the proposed Greenbank Avenue street crossing for LPPS primary students walking to attend Briargreen is problematic from a safety point-of-view. 5) Similar to Briargreen, Leslie Park Public School is adjacent to a large city park, Dayton Park and has access to a community skating rink in the colder months. This information is not noted in the Board report. 6) LPPS has had significant infrastructure renewal since 2011 which is also not noted in the Board’s report, including the replacement of the majority of its windows and entrance doors this past summer (2016). As the property was already identified for possible closure in the spring before this major capital expenditure occurred, this could be considered a poor use of taxpayer monies if the building is disposed of immediately after such a major renovation. 7) Leslie Park is a community school, with the facilities used by Girl Guides, YMCA and the Ottawa City Soccer Club. The Soccer Club and the City have provided financial support for recent upgrades to the school yard facilities, including new soccer and (baseball pitches?) and a footpath and pedestrian bridge along Graham Creek to facilitate access to the schoolyard. The school community and parents’ council have also been very active and fundraised almost $60,000 to build a new playground for the school, the construction of which has been put on hold. In 2014, LPPS had to forgo revenue generation from the Carleton Montessori School, which was asked by the Board to leave the facilities so that the Board’s Autism program could be brought in. The school’s profile as a small school was a key criterion for moving this Board program into the facilities. It is unclear, however, as unused classrooms still remain, why Carleton Montessori School was told they had to relocate, or what steps have been taken by the Board to secure new community partners in their place. This is particularly perplexing in light of the province’s renewed focus on strengthening communities in this regard, as evidenced in their release of the Community Hubs in Ontario: A Strategic Framework and Action Plan. Link: https://www.ontario.ca/page/community-hubs-ontario-strategic-framework-and-action-plan 8) The walking zone of Briargreen is very limited, which, as in the last round of school closures, will result in the majority of students being relocated from LPPS being bussed to attend the proposed school. It is also unclear how many students from the Centrepointe neighbourhood walk to Briargreen, as it would appear that the majority would come by bus or attend Manordale. Added to this, the built footprint of Briargreen as a neighbourhood is much smaller than Leslie Park, fairly static and only has two roads to access the enclosed community and the school and one footpath that connect the community with Centrepointe. Leslie Park has several walking paths that connect the school to its community and has four access points that allow a flow of traffic into the neighbourhood. Any additional busing required to Leslie Park could be staggered by five minutes to allow more than two buses and two minivans to accommodate use of the short traffic circle. 9) Closing Leslie Park Public School will not necessarily result in the majority of students transferring to Briargreen. There are LPPS parents who believe strongly enough in community schooling and/or that an open-concept school would not be the best learning environment for their children that they would switch their children to the Catholic Board to attend the other neighbourhood school, St. John the Apostle to avoid this scenario. This would remove these families’ support for public school funding to the Board. 10) A number of Leslie Park parents are concerned about Sir Robert Borden becoming a 7-12 secondary school. We are aware that there is research arguing that if a 7-12 school is not purpose-built to support segregated social spaces for the younger students, there is higher likelihood of poor social situations (inappropriate fraternizing, exposure to negative high- school youth behaviors and potential for bullying) for the lower classes.

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