Mutchmor School Council

Summary of Centretown, Glebe and OOS Accommodation Working Committee Meetings

April 14th

Presentation of Terms of Reference for Working Committee and confirmation of working Committee membership as follows

• including 2 representatives from each school:
  • Centennial JK-6 Eng, 4-6 MFI and SE
  • Cambridge JK-6 Eng, ESL and SE
  • Elgin – JK-6 ENG and SK-6 EFI
  • Glashan – 7-8 ENG, Gifted, LFI (phasing out), MFI (starting 2012), ESL and SE
  • First Avenue – SK-6 EFI
  • Mutchmor – JK-6 ENG (including JK from First Ave.) and 1-6 Gifted
  • Hopewell – JK-8 ENG, SK-8 EFI, 4-8 MFI, SE
• 1 representative from each Community Association
  • Centretown Community Association
  • Dalhousie Community Association
  • Ottawa East Community Association
  • Old Ottawa South Community Association
  • Glebe Community Association

Members completed a staff-led exercise entitled “What is Important to You and Your School”.  Rankings were assigned based on members’ responses.  The results were as follows:

What is Important to You and Your School?

1. Strong Viable Programs (84)
2. Ability to walk to school (65)
3. Students should move with cohorts (59)
4. Minimize transitions (35)
5. Stay in a defined neighbourhood (34)
6. Efficient use of school space (19)
7. Keep siblings together rather than cohorts (18)
8. More flexible transportation (10)
9. Heritage character mitigates lack of newer school features (--)

April 26, 2011

Board staff presented two discussion scenarios  (posted on Board website at http://www.ocdsb.ca/sch/as/Pages/CentretownGlebeOldOttawa.aspx)

Briefly:  
Scenario A – consolidated ENG from Hopewell to Mutchmor

• created a boundary along Bank and the west side of 2nd Ave. for EFI from First Avenue redirecting them to Hopewell
• consolidated Elgin’s English program at Centennial
• consolidated MFI at Elgin
• redirected a portion of Hopewell 7&8 EFI and SE to Glashan

Scenario B – consolidated Elgin ENG at Centennial

• Hopewell JK-3 English consolidated at Mutchmor
• Mutchmor 4-6 Eng consolidated at Hopewell
• First Ave. 4-6 EFI relocated to Glashan
• Portion of Hopewell 7&8 EFI redirected to Glashan
• Glashan 7-8 ENG, SE relocated to Hopewell
• MFI consolidated at Mutchmor
• Hopewell 7-8 MFI consolidated at Glashan

Members discussed the scenarios and were asked to consult their councils or groups, review Scenarios to identify both positives and areas for improvements and suggest alternate scenarios for discussion.

May 9th

• Members presented their views on the scenarios and some presented alternate scenarios.
• Some of the scenarios suggested moving the gifted program from Mutchmor to create space for a dual track ENG/EFI program.
• Mutchmor presented alternate scenarios that would keep ENG and Gifted and add MFI.
• There was a brief discussion of the benefits of single track and dual track schools.
• Staff were asked to review the presented scenarios and develop more options for the next meeting.