Just as students head back to school, their families have been hit with an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board report setting out possible school closures. So far, eight schools across the city could be shuttered over the next five years. 

This news is alarming; families and indeed entire neighbourhoods grow attached to the brick and mortar of their schools. But there’s no escaping the numbers: The board has 11,500 empty desks and faces a budget shortfall of $14.4 million for 2016-17. The Ontario government, meanwhile, is turning off the taps on its top-up funding to keep under-used schools going (though it had oodles to help teachers’ unions cover their bargaining costs).

So far, the school board is doing some things right with this highly charged file. First, it is giving itself plenty of time to make decisions. When closure choices are finalized in late February or early March, parents, students, teachers and any interested community member will have had the opportunity to be heard – and also will have had time to make new plans. 

Second, the board has adopted guidelines to inform its choices. For instance, it has already voted to phase out middle schools, so it’s no surprise those will be on the chopping block. As well, the demand for English-only schooling is going down and demand for French immersion is rising. The board is looking to add an élite international baccalaureate program. Finally, there’s the education equity argument: Under-enrolled schools, particularly high schools, aren’t able to offer a full slate of programming. Shirley Seward, the board chair, has long maintained this isn’t fair, and believes students will get a better education if they’re in schools with a full academic lineup.

These are perfectly logical principles with which to confront tough decisions. The challenge for trustees will be sticking to them as the lobbying grows more intense. The other challenge is to ensure the board doesn’t slip up on the basics – as it did during the Elgin Street school debate, in which, to the apparent surprise of everyone involved, it turned out the board’s proposal to move kindergarten students to another elementary school wasn’t allowed under the province’s Education Act. 

Open communication and sensitivity can help ease transitions that may be traumatic for some families. These families, too, have a responsibility to explain the process to their children, and to make their own arguments and presentations to the board sensibly and calmly. We don’t need parent groups shouting at each other or at the trustees who face this thankless task.

Sometimes, reality bites. A responsible approach from everyone will minimize the pain – and educate our young in a constructive way. 

Carmen Parsons says Leslie Park Public School was ideal for her son, John, who thrived at the small neighbourhood school where students and teachers all know each other.

But when she heard the news this week that Leslie Park is one of eight public schools targeted for closure, she wasn’t surprised. Parsons has analyzed the grim statistics. Enrolment is down to 125 students in a building with room for 288, and the options appear limited. If Briargreen Public School, the other nearby English-program school, was closed instead, there wouldn’t be room at Leslie Park to accommodate students from both schools.

“I was sad and disappointed,” said Parsons of the staff recommendation to close Leslie Park and send the children to Briargreen. “But logically, when you think it through, this is what I expected would happen.

“We would need to come up with some serious reasons as to why they would keep (Leslie Park) open. They have to close some schools, that’s the bottom line.”

Parents across the city are marshalling their arguments as the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board begins a massive five-year effort to close schools and re-align programming. The board says it can’t afford to pay for 15,000 empty pupil spaces now spread across the city. It is trying to end the mismatch between where buildings are located and where schools are needed.

Related

• Update: 8 schools on chopping block in Ottawa-Carleton board
• Editorial: Clear principles will help school closure debate

It began this week with the launch of two “accommodation reviews” of schools in the west end of Ottawa, and of high schools in the east end of the city.

The staff report recommends closing Rideau High School in the east, which is at less than 42-per-cent capacity. In the west, targeted for closure are Greenbank, D. Aubrey Moodie and J.H. Putman middle schools, and Leslie Park, Grant, Century and Regina Street elementary schools. Three high schools — Bell, Sir Robert Borden and Merivale — would expand to include Grades 7 to 12 when the middle schools close. 

Parents are upset about the prospect of losing neighbourhood schools. At Regina Street Public, another small English-program school, many parents are from low-income families and rely on public transportation, said parent Melanie Good. Most children can now walk to the school, which also houses a non-profit daycare for kids age two to 12 that provides before- and after-school care. The report suggests students from Regina St. could attend D. Roy Kennedy PS instead.

If that happens, some parents would have to take a city bus to drop their children at another daycare, then get to work themselves, said Good. Some families would have trouble affording bus fare.

Regina Street parents are organizing a lobbying campaign.

“We are going to fight, and hopefully we can keep our school open,” said Good, whose son Ryan is heading to Grade 1.

For Leslie Park parent Christine Thomson, an underlying issue is the provincial government’s decision to fund multiple school boards.

There is a Catholic elementary school about a block away from Leslie Park, she notes. “I have nothing against Catholics, but I think it’s time the government realized that the best way to save money is to consolidate.

“Kids are being bused across neighbourhoods when there’s a school right next door. But one’s Catholic and one’s public.

“It’s just a crazy waste of money.”

Thomson’s son Gavin, 8, who has Asperger syndrome, also thrived in the “small town” atmosphere at Leslie Park. “All the teachers really know him. I feel like putting him in a much larger school would be horribly stressful.

“He’s not a candidate for French immersion. That’s what’s really frustrating. English-only schools are closing, because it seems like all parents want their kids to go to French immersion. But it seems like kids like Gavin who aren’t really candidates for that just sort of don’t have any priority.”

She is sympathetic to the dilemma faced by the school board.

“I’m a taxpayer too, I don’t want to keep open schools that don’t make any sense. I just wish there was maybe a way to fill up the small schools … there’s got to be some way to make it work. I don’t know what the answer is, either, but for me, personally, I really hope that some kind of solutions can be come up with.”

Rhys Fisher, 5, says his mommy bought him the snazzy bow tie that was part of his back-to-school ensemble. “It came with this, too,” he explained, snapping the suspenders holding up his new jeans.

“I got new pencil crayons, a new eraser, and a sharpener,” said his sister Riley, 8. They were among 280 public school students in north Kanata who arrived for the first day of classes Tuesday to confront another brand new item: the school itself.

At Kanata Highlands PS on Terry Fox Drive, construction crews are still transforming an expanse of dirt into turf for a soccer field. The gym also won’t be finished for another month or so.

Students at the new Kanata Highlands Public School enjoy recess on the first day of school.

That’s no problem, says principal Pauline McKenna cheerfully. The kids can play outside for phys-ed. She’s excited about her “forest school,” surrounded on all sides by trees, including the Trillium Woods. “Isn’t it awesome?” she says, pointing out a dirt pathway leading to a planned outdoor classroom in the trees at the edge of the schoolyard.

Teachers plan to make nature and outdoor education an important part of the curriculum, says McKenna. “I’m hoping for deer. I’m going to throw a few apples out!”

Pauline McKenna, principal at Kanata Highlands Public School, play a game in the hallway with kids to help them get acquainted with each other.

Kanata Highlands is one of three new elementary schools the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board opens this month. All are in fast-growing suburbs. Summerside Public School is on Portobello Drive in Orleans and Half Moon Bay PS is near the Jock River on River Run Avenue in Barrhaven. The English Catholic board also opened a new school in Half Moon Bay, St. Benedict on River Mist Road.

Kanata Highlands PS reflects trends at the board and in education. The school offers only French immersion, an increasingly popular program choice among Ottawa parents. All the students are bused, but in the next few years they will also be drawn from nearby housing developments under construction. At capacity, the school will have room for about 630 children.

There is a play structure for kindergarten kids, but for older students McKenna says the school will probably build a more natural play space, perhaps using rocks and boulders. Traditional playgrounds are often closed all winter, which isn’t ideal, she said.

The school has wide hallways that double as places for students to gather for various activities. There’s a gender-neutral washroom for transgender kids. In a Grade 4 classroom, Kaylee Rhodes perches on a stool at a desk that can be raised or lowered, so she can also stand. “It’s nice,” she says. In another room, “jive” stools close to the ground allow energetic kids to bounce and twist around.

Students at the brand new Kanata Highlands PS, including Kaylee Rhodes, foreground, get down to work after recess on the first day of school Tuesday.

A new school also presents a chance to create a culture from scratch, says McKenna. Staff and students will pick school colours, a mascot, a song. The school motto is “be open, be curious, be kind.”

A few miles away in west Ottawa, there was a similar buzz of excitement as students returned to class at Regina Street PS. It’s a small neighbourhood school that is adjacent to Mud Creek, which is also used as an outdoor education area.

Six-year-old Ryan Aikin was all ready for his first day of Grade 1 at Regina Street Public School Tuesday.

But there was also an undercurrent of worry as parents face the prospect that the low-enrolment English-program school might not survive. It’s one of eight schools staff have recommended be closed. The board is struggling with a mismatch between where buildings are located and where schools are needed. 

Parents at Regina St. plan to show up at a board meeting Wednesday for the first debate over the “accommodation review” of schools in west Ottawa that will result in schools being closed and programming changed.

“I’m hoping we can make a really good case to keep our school open,” said parent Melanie Good, whose son Ryan Aikin is in Grade 1.

SOS is an international symbol for distress.

Parents at Regina Street Public School figure it’s the perfect acronym to represent their fight to keep the neighbourhood school open. Their lobby campaign began in earnest on the first day of school Tuesday, when kids arrived with posters plastered with SOS — Save our Schools.

On Wednesday, about 40 Regina Street parents showed up at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, determined to impress trustees with the validity of their arguments against closing the small, English-program school with dwindling enrolment.

It marks the start of a long and probably fierce debate over which public schools in Ottawa should close or change programs. The school board is embarking on five years of “accommodation studies” to ensure schools are located where they are needed. The board now has 15,000 empty pupil spaces spread across a district that serves about 72,000 students. Some schools in fast-growing suburbs are crowded, while others are half-empty.

On Wednesday trustees debated the terms of reference for the first two studies, one of 26 elementary and secondary schools in the west end of Ottawa, the other of three high schools in the east. Staff have recommended closing seven elementary and middle schools in the west and Rideau High School in the east.

There will be months of public consultations before the board takes a decision in early March.

Regina Street PS parent Heather Amundrud said most kids can walk to the school, something parents value. There is a childcare centre in the building, and it is adjacent to Mud Lake, which children visit often, she said.

She suggested the board expand the catchment area for the school, or add Grades 7 and 8 to the school, rather than closing it.

The two staff studies also recommend programming changes, such as expanding three high schools in the west — Merivale, Sir Robert Borden and Bell — to include Grades 7 to 12.

Parent Jeff Elzinga came to the meeting because he was concerned about sending children in Grades 7 and 8 to high schools, where they will be exposed to teen behaviour, from cliques and serious relationships to drug use. “It’s exposing kids who are 11 and 12 to a high-school environment,” he said in an interview.

Elzinga’s son Alex is in Grade 5 at Leslie Park PS, another west end English program school that staff has suggested should close. Alex, who has special needs, thrives at the small school, he said. The staff proposal is to send Leslie Park students to Briargreen PS, which has on open concept that would be difficult for children like Alex, Elzinga said. He and other Leslie Park parents are hoping their small community school will also stay open.

About 70 parents and half a dozen kids attended the committee meeting Wednesday, most from Regina Street PS.

Trustee Chris Ellis planned to ask fellow trustees to delay the eastern study for several years. In an interview, he said he was concerned that the study only included Gloucester, Rideau and Colonel By high schools, which limits the possibilities. Closing Rideau High School, which is now below 42 per cent capacity, would be premature, he said.

Part of the problem is that many students in the area chose not to attend Rideau High School, said Ellis. They go to the Catholic board, private schools, or obtain a transfer so they can attend another public high school, such as Lisgar Collegiate, which has a French immersion program and a reputation for academic excellence.

L-R Six year old Ryan Aikin, Nine year old Anna Weatherup and Seven Adam Weatherup hold up “save our school” signs outside Regina Street Public School Tuesday September 6, 2016. Photos by Ashley Fraser

Hari Adnani says his first year at J.H. Putman middle school was “awesome.” He made lots of friends and was elected president of the student council, even though he was only in Grade 6.

“It was kind of a risky move on my part to run, but it worked out all right,” he says cheerfully. Hari joined seven clubs, including the band (“way cool”), the ecology club, the Makers club (eat lunch, hang out and make things) and the equality alliance that brought together kids of all sexualities.

But as he ends his first week in Grade 7, Hari is focused on a new project: keeping his school open.

J.H. Putman is one of seven schools targeted for closure in the west end as the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board tries to ensure school buildings are located where they are needed. Hari plans to start a petition to “Save our School.” Parents are organizing a lobby campaign.

Enrolment is not the problem. Last year J.H. Putman was close to its capacity of 340 students in Grades 6 to 8. But the school is caught up in the “accommodation review” that covers 26 schools in the west end. A staff report recommends closing seven schools and changing programs and grade configurations at many others.

Trustees also made a policy decision to eliminate middle schools. It may take awhile, but the plan is to enlarge high schools to include Grades 7 to 12, or expand elementary schools to include K to 8, squeezing out middle schools and junior highs.

The latest educational research shows that students fare better if they have fewer transitions, say board staff. Attending only two schools — elementary and high school — allows students more time to develop deeper friendships and closer ties to the school community, says a staff report.

The board’s Longfields‐Davidson Heights Secondary School in Barrhaven now houses Grades 7 to 12. Trustee Donna Blackburn says she has received no complaints about the grade configuration, and students enjoy several gyms and a theatre.

Some parents of students in middle schools are skeptical.

Middle schools provide a welcome transition between elementary school and the stress and responsibilities of high school, says J.H. Putman parent Caroline Laviolette, whose son Dominick is in Grade 6.

“Kids are excited to be going to middle school,” she said. “This gives them a chance to grow up, but not high school grown up. It’s that in-between time.”

Caroline Laviolette and son Dominick Martin, grade 6, say J.H. Putman middle school provides a nice transition between elementary and high school.

Parent Jeff Elzinga says he doesn’t want his son Alex sent to a high school in Grade 7, where he will be exposed to teen behaviour, from cliques and serious relationships to drug use.

Alex is at Leslie Park PS, also recommended for closure. Staff suggest Leslie Park students be redirected to Briargreen PS, then to Sir Robert Borden High School beginning in Grade 7.

It’s difficult to generalize about the educational value of middle schools, says Charles Pascal, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, and a former Ontario deputy minister for education.

All school transitions should be managed carefully, whether it’s kids meeting a new teacher, adapting to a more challenging curriculum or starting at a new school, he says.

“Transitions are taking place all the time … how well those transitions are made, that’s where the attention should be. If the school board saves some money (by closing middle schools) I hope it will go into professional development to increase the capability of all teachers to become great teachers, and adapt to the individual differences of the kids, and to manage transitions from one year to the next, and even transitions within the school year.”

Once any school is established, the community rarely wants it to close, regardless of the grade configuration. Parents at J.H. Putman say they value their small community school.

“There’s something awesome about being in a small school,” says Hari. “You can get to know people better.” He knows most of the kids and all the teachers. “It’s full of a lot of happy people. I have never, personally, experienced bullying. I’ve made some pretty good friends.”

“It isn’t just a building,” he adds. “It’s kind of like a house of memories.”

The board report recommends that J.H. Putman students be sent to either Agincourt, Woodroffe or Pinecrest schools, depending on where they live and what program they are enrolled in.

Sending the children back to elementary school will be a backward step, say some parents.

J.H. Putman has been set up to accommodate Grades 6 to 8, from the library to the newly renovated tennis courts, said parent Hilary Wright, whose son Jonas is in Grade 7.

If the school closes, Jonas would be sent to Agincourt PS for Grade 8, then head to Woodroffe High School in Grade 9.

“Agincourt is a great school, but it’s already crowded, and it’s geared for little kids,” says Wright. “I’d rather have my child have an extra transition (to Putman) in Grade 6 to 8, then have him spend Grade 7 and 8 in a portable in the back of the kindergarten yard (at Agincourt).”

Some trustees acknowledge that it may be easier to close middle schools because parents there can be less emotionally attached to the schools. Their children only attend them for two or three years, and are at an age when parents don’t tend to congregate in the playground to chat or come into schools to volunteer as much.

Middle schools targeted for closure in the west end of Ottawa

J.H. Putman Public School

Where: 2051 Bel-Air Dr.

Grades: 6-8

Programs: English, Early French immersion, behaviour intervention program and autism classes

Enrolment: 321

School capacity: 340

Staff recommendation:  J.H. Putman would close in September 2017. Students would be redirected to Agincourt, Woodroffe or Pinecrest elementary schools, depending on where they live and what program they are enrolled in. Behaviour intervention and autism classes would be relocated to Agincourt PS.

Facilities: Art room, a library with both English and French materials, computer lab, science lab, gymnasium with a stage, maker space, workshop and gardening area, culinary area, instrumental music room. All classrooms have computers and access to a digital projector and document camera. The school is wheelchair accessible and there is an elevator to the second floor. The school has a large schoolyard with a soccer field, baseball diamond and picnic tables for outdoor lunches, and tennis courts.

Fun fact: Club activities last year included Student Council; Junior, senior and Jazz bands; Improvisation team, Ski Club, Talent Show; Creative Labs, Go Girls, Game On, Leaders In Action, Putman Slam Poetry Society, Voice of the Pumas Blog, Intramural and interschool sports including cross-country running, soccer, touch football, badminton, volleyball, basketball, track & field, and Hudson Sargeant relays.

History: The school opened in 1961. It is named after the Chief Inspector of Ottawa Public Schools, Dr. J.H. Putman, whose recommendations led to the introduction of intermediate schools in Ottawa in 1929.

Draws students from: Agincourt and Woodroffe elementary schools

Parent Council: on Facebook @J. H. Putman Parent Council: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=J.%20H.%20Putman%20Parent%20Council

School website: https://jhputmanps.ocdsb.ca/Pages/home.aspx

Trustee: Anita Olsen Harper, College Ward

Contact: 613-868-0076; anita.olsen.harper@ocdsb.ca

D. Aubrey Moodie Intermediate School

Where: 595 Moodie Dr.

Grades: 6 to 8

Programs: English, early French immersion, middle French immersion, Developmental Disabilities  and General Learning Program system classes

Enrolment: 354

Capacity: 502

Staff recommendation: D. A. Moodie would close in 2017. Grade 7 & 8 students would attend Bell High School. Grade 6 students would be redirected to Bells Corners, Lakeview or Bayshore elementary schools based on program choice. The intermediate developmental disabilities program class would be relocated to Bell HS. The junior DD class would move to Roch Carrier PS. An Intermediate General Learning Program would open at Bell HS and the junior class would be reconfigured with students attending either Katimavik ES or A. Lorne Cassidy ES, dependent on home location. 

Facilities: Large library with a computer lab, smart tablets purchased by school council, elmos, media carts. Large double gym, two soccer fields, baseball diamonds and six outdoor basketball hoops. In the Greenbelt, bordered by forest walkways.

Fun fact: Almost half the students speak languages other than English and French. Arabic, Chinese, Urdu, Farsi, Hindi, Russian, Bosnian and Somali are some of the first languages spoken in the homes of students.

History: The school was named after D. Aubrey Moodie, Reeve of Nepean Township from 1954 to 1969, known as the “Father of Nepean.” Moodie, a farmer, was first elected to council in 1950. He was a member of Nepean Council from 1973 to 1976. He lobbied for the creation of the Queensway-Carleton Hospital and sat on its first board of directors. He died in 2008 at the age of 99.

School website: https://daubreymoodieis.ocdsb.ca/Pages/home.aspx

Trustee: Anita Olsen Harper, College Ward

Contact: 613-868-0076; anita.olsen.harper@ocdsb.ca

Greenbank Middle School

Where: 168 Greenbank Rd.

Grades: 7 and 8

Programs: English, early French immersion, middle French immersion, congregated gifted EFI class and an intermediate learning disabilities system class.

Enrolment: 357

Capacity: 551

Staff recommendation: Greenbank Middle School would close in September 2017. Grade 7 and 8 students would go to Sir Robert Borden High School. MFI students from this area would go to D. Roy Kennedy PS for Grades 4-8.

Facilities: Instrumental music room, library with computer lab, large gym, science labs, dance/drama studio, yard with multiple soccer pitches, baseball diamonds and basketball courts.

Fun fact: The school is on a large property next to parkland that offers students access to soccer pitches, baseball diamonds, tennis courts and a community rink.

History: The school was founded in 1968. 

Draws students from: Knoxdale, Briargreen, Manordale, Leslie Park elementary schools 

School website: https://greenbankms.ocdsb.ca/Pages/home.aspx

Trustee: Donna Blackburn, Barrhaven-Knoxdale

Contact: 613-816-6509 donna.blackburn@ocdsb.ca

Parents made their pitches Monday to spare programs and staff at Ottawa’s public school board from impending budget cuts. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board faces a $5.4-million budget shortfall. Making cuts won’t be easy. 

About 45 parents, teachers, board staff and members of the public attended the meeting to lobby for everything from after-school piano lessons to social workers.

Trustee Shawn Menard filed motions that would reverse proposed cuts to education assistants, ESL teachers, learning resource teachers, social workers and psychologists, and school office staff. They’ll be debated at the next budget meeting June 6.

Several parents whose children take lessons in piano and other instruments, drawing, art, creative writing and yoga extolled the benefits of the extracurricular creative arts program. Hundreds of children at 26 schools take the lessons, offered by private instructors before or after classes.

Parents pay fees, but they don’t cover all the costs, and the board could save $48,000 a year by cutting the program. “The minimal savings you project pale in comparison to the tremendous good this program delivers,” said one brief signed by 27 people.

The lessons are convenient for busy parents and are often taken by children who are in the before-and-after daycares at schools. One single mother wrote in a brief that it was the only way she could manage to give her child piano lessons because she can’t leave work to ferry her daughter to lessons after school.

Parent Miriam Martin said her son in Grade 2 takes piano lessons at 5:45 p.m., across the hall from his after-school care. Like several other parents, she suggested the board increase fees and better advertise the program.

Board staff said the extracurricular classes could continue if private groups wanted to run them.

Lisa Liu and Colleen Hyslop asked the board to save the general-interest courses at schools offered for adults. They take a keyboard class. “It’s important to reach out to the community,” said Hyslop, who is retired. “People really appreciate the opportunity to pursue their dreams that they couldn’t do in the past,” said Liu.

Staff have suggesting cutting the general-interest courses to save $267,000.

Ottawa Coun. Tim Tierney said he was concerned about cuts to ESL teachers, given the influx of Syrian refugees. About 450 of the refugees have settled in two apartment buildings on Donald Street in his ward. More than 100 Syrian children have enrolled at nearby Carson Grove Elementary School, which had 300 students before the refugees arrived.

Several trustees said they welcome the refugee children, but the school board needs funding from higher levels of government to provide services to them.

“The federal government sponsored them, but they didn’t quite finish the job,” said trustee Theresa Kavanagh.

About  500 Syrian children have enrolled across the board. Staff have said they will look at the enrolment numbers in September and might make staffing changes then. The board has already approved cutting four ESL teachers. Director of education Jennifer Adams said staff would have proposed even deeper cuts but were concerned about the needs of Syrian refugees.

She said all the budget cuts affect students, but staff have tried to make them “fair and balanced.”

One of the largest proposed cuts is to the teaching assistants for children with special needs. The budget suggests cutting 10 of the assistants, who help with everything from moving children in and out of wheelchairs to handling kids with behaviour problems. School office staff are also hit, with a reduction of 12.25 positions.

Trustees are expected to approve the budget by the end of June.

Ottawa’s public school board wants a judge to order YouTube and Google to hand over contact and other personal information about Internet users who repeatedly posted a video of an upset autistic student online.

The video was first posted to YouTube under the title “Kid with autism goes nuts” in February of this year. The video – which purportedly showed an Ottawa police officer and a teacher attempting to calm an agitated student at the Ottawa Technical Secondary School in December 2014 – was removed after the school board contacted YouTube, but was posted two more times by people with different usernames over the next two months before again being removed at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s request.

The school board believes the video was both shot and posted to the Internet by one of their staff members, according to their court application, which was filed in late April.

“The OCDSB requires that YouTube and Google disclose the subscriber information and IP address relating to the channels on which the video was uploaded and the registration information for the Gmail e-mail address in order to confirm which of its employees is responsible for posting the content and in order to preserve evidence of same,” reads the application.

“The interests of justice favour ordering YouTube to disclose the information sought in furtherance of any copyright or employee discipline courses of action the OCDSB might take,” the application said.

In their court application, the school board said the video was both shot and disclosed without the student’s or his parent’s consent. The parents have since expressed concerns to the school board about violations of the child’s privacy.

The school board also cited privacy as its reason for acting.

“The school district is very concerned that the posting of this video is a violation of the student’s privacy,” OCDSB communications officer Sharlene Hunter said in an email. “The court action was initiated in an effort to learn who is posting the video. That information may help to avoid future postings.”

But an expert in Internet law said the school board’s request seems like “a little bit of a fishing expedition” that is unlikely to succeed, as the video has already been taken down.

Allen Mendelsohn said while the video violated the student’s privacy, it doesn’t appear any laws have been broken and the issue now seems to be more of a contractual or discipline issue between the board and one of its employees.

That likely won’t be enough to convince a judge the Internet companies should be forced to turn over records that they fiercely want to protect, said Mendelsohn, a Montreal lawyer.

“If you need the information to get it removed, a judge will order it,” said Mendelsohn. “I’m not sure there is actually something for a judge to hang his hat on beyond the school board just wanting to find out who this person was passing around the video. It’s definitely a stretch, that’s for sure.”

Mendelsohn said he expects Google and YouTube to fight the application. Attempts for comment from YouTube and Google about what they will do weren’t immediately returned.

However, both have already told the school board they will need a court order if they want the information.

The school board has asked for “all information” in the possession of YouTube and Google regarding the identity and contact information for the usernames and email address associated with the postings of the video. That information includes the names, addresses, IP addresses, email addresses and modem and telephone numbers of the listed individuals. The school board also wants a copy of all documents relating to the origins of the messages created by the persons connected to those usernames. The matter is scheduled to be heard in court on July 19.

“The large companies certainly have an interest in not turning over that information,” said Mendelsohn. “They don’t want to be seen as acquiescing to turn over that information on a regular basis. That takes away the trust of their user base.”

The school board alleges the video was shot by a teacher at the Ottawa Technical Secondary School on Donald Street on Dec. 1, 2014. According to an affidavit by the school’s vice-principal, Jennifer Tremblay, that’s when a student began to act out in a “disruptive and violent manner” during class.

According to the OCDSB, the classroom was evacuated before another teacher from the school’s Behaviour Intervention Program and the Ottawa police school resource officer came in to assist the student. While that teacher and the police officer were trying to help calm the student down, the classroom teacher turned on a video recording device and recorded the incident, according to the school board’s court application.

The Behaviour Intervention Program teacher told the principal that the other teacher had recorded the incident. Tremblay said she ordered the teacher to delete the video at once, since a release is required for any student to be filmed on school property. The teacher – who still works at the school – said he would delete it immediately, according to Tremblay.

It wasn’t until February of this year that the school’s principal learned a video of the incident still existed and had been uploaded to YouTube by a person using the name “Eric Decker.”

The video was removed in early March after a school board lawyer contacted YouTube. The lawyer argued the video belonged to the school board — given that it was shot on school property, using school board recording equipment and by a school board employee — and so infringed on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Following the removal of the video, Decker contacted the school board’s lawyer through a Gmail email account.

In his email to the school’s lawyer, Decker questioned why the video was removed and didn’t understand how it was a copyright issue. He also wrote that he believed the police and teacher were “in the wrong” on how they handled the issue.

“I think the public has a right to see this,” he wrote. “The public has a right to know what goes on in schools.”

Decker explained that he wasn’t a student at the school, but got a copy of the video from somebody who was and posted it online. He never identified exactly who gave him the video. Attempts by this newspaper to reach Decker at the email address provided were unsuccessful.

The video was again posted to YouTube a little more than a month later by someone using the name “John White.” The video was again removed after the school board complained, only to appear yet again, this time posted by a “James Baker.” A copy of the link to the video was also posted on the social news networking website Reddit by a subscriber using the screen name “jamesbaker12.”

Public reaction to the Reddit post wasn’t positive.

“This kid’s bad day is not for you to share with the world,” one commenter wrote after the link, which has since been removed, was posted.

“That school team and the police responders were wonderful. You never want a situation to get to that point but when it does, you can only hope everyone is as calm as they were,” the commenter added. “Take it down and try to be a better human being moving forward.”

The school board says it was unable to determine if all three videos were posted by the same person, although it appears the second and third videos were identical to the initial post.

aseymour@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/andrew_seymour

More teachers and classroom staff are calling in sick at Ottawa’s public school board, and the cost of hiring substitutes to replace them is rising. 

At a time when the board is chopping jobs and programs to make up a budget shortfall, more money is being poured into paying an army of substitute teachers, as well as staff to replace the educational assistants and early childhood educators who book off sick.

The average number of sick days taken by all those classroom workers has risen over the past five years, according to statistics provided by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Elementary teachers, the largest group of employees at the board, took an average of 7.87 days of sick leave in 2010-11, for example. That climbed to 9.73 days in 2014-15. Sick days taken by secondary teachers increased to 9.14 days from an average of 7.84 days in that same time period. 

The increase for other workers in the classroom was comparable or higher. Sick days taken by the educational assistants who help children with special needs rose from an average of 10.09 days to 13.53 days in that time period, while the average number of sick days taken by the early childhood educators who work alongside teachers in kindergarten went from 6.94 days to 11.44 days.

Sick-leave statistics are still being compiled for the current school year, but it’s clear the trend is continuing. Staff have recommended adding an extra $1 million to the “occasional teacher” budget next year, “based on recent experience.”

“We did the same last year, which proved to be inadequate,” the budget report says.

“It just keeps going up and up,” said trustee Mark Fisher at a budget meeting. The board can’t afford to keep adding more money for substitute teachers, he said in an interview. “I have some concerns in terms of what is happening in the organization that is causing it. How do you respond to it? We’ve been talking about this for years, and clearly what we’re doing isn’t working.”

He wants the board to do a “deep dive” into the issue, to root out the causes and find solutions. Other trustees and board staff say they don’t know the cause, either, but speculate it may be related to a change in sick-leave provisions in teacher contracts, labour unrest, stress in the classroom and an aging workforce. 

The amount the board spends to hire substitute teachers has been rising steadily, and was approximately $15 million this year. About two-thirds of that amount was to replace teachers off sick, with the rest used to replace teachers off for other reasons, including maternity-paternity leave, personal days or workplace safety insurance absences.

Then there is the continuing expense of paying the salaries of classroom educators who book off sick. That cost in 2014-15, for example, was estimated at $11.24 million to replace teachers, educational assistants and early childhood educators on sick leave. Some things are hard to put a price on, such as the effect on children’s education when substitutes take the place of their teachers.

The issue should be a priority, said Fisher, noting that trustees spend a lot of time debating relatively minor budgetary items. Case in point: parents pleaded with trustees at a budget meeting last week to save after-school piano lessons, because the extracurricular arts program is on the budget chopping block to save $48,000 a year. 

Both the board and teachers have an interest in reducing sick-leave costs, Fisher said. The money saved could be invested in the classroom, and on programs to help students that teachers agree are needed, he said.

The problem is not unique to Ottawa. Across Ontario, elementary teachers and education workers took more sick days in 2014-15 than four years earlier, according to a report by School Boards’ Co-operative Inc., an organization established by Ontario school boards to provide advice on compensation issues. The increases across the province weren’t as significant as in Ottawa, though, and among secondary teachers there was actually a decline. Ontario elementary teachers took an average 7.7 days off sick in 2010-11, rising to 8.46 in 2014-15, according to the report, which included data from 55 school boards. It found that the average number of sick days taken by secondary teachers declined slightly in that time period, from 7.68 days to 7.55 days.

Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals has suggested there’s a link between rising sick-leave rates and a contract the government imposed on teachers in 2012 that ended the banking of unused sick leave for a cash payout on retirement. “There’s no reason to believe that they’re actually sicker than they were two years ago,” Sandals remarked this spring. “It would appear that there is a relationship between the belief that they lost something and taking more sick days.”

In a statement from her office, Sandals clarified that teachers are professionals and she “does not believe the majority of teachers are abusing the system.”

No one has studied the reasons for rising sick-leave rates among teachers, as far as he’s aware, says Charles Pascal, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and a former deputy minister in the Ontario Ministry of Education.

But human nature being what it is, it’s easy to speculate that some teachers have adopted a “use them or lose them” approach to sick days because they can no longer be banked for a cash payout, he said.

Banking sick leave was an “unsustainable and ridiculous policy” that gave teachers an incentive to go to school when they were ill, he said.

That incentive is now gone, so some teachers who have a bad cold, for instance, may be more likely to book off sick, he said. That may be better for everyone in the school, as they aren’t spreading illness.

The issue is nuanced, and more research needs to be done, said Pascal.

Ottawa trustee Shawn Menard noted that teachers and other education workers have also gone through labour disputes over the past six years. There were work-to-rules, withdrawals of service and vitriolic debate in the media during contract negotiations. “That doesn’t create a happy staff, that is recognized for the value they bring.”

“A happy staff call in sick less.” 

Helping ensure staff are happy and appreciated will help reduce the number of sick days taken by teachers, says trustee Shawn Menard.

A teachers’ union official says there’s no evidence teachers are taking unwarranted sick days.

“I don’t believe it’s people abusing the sick leave,” says Janet Fraser, a vice-president of the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Teachers Federation. “Generally speaking, (teachers) aren’t malingerers.” 

She speculates that teachers are taking more sick days because they are under such stress in the classroom. Teachers cope with an increasing number of students with autism, behaviour problems, anxiety and depression,  she said. “The stress in the schools is ridiculous. We have teachers falling like flies.”

Her office hears from stressed-out teachers who say that maintaining control has become more difficult under the province’s “progressive discipline” approach.  “Even the good kids know they can get away with bad behaviour because there are no consequences.

“You send them to the office and they’re given a sucker, a candy or an iPad to play on.”

Fraser recently heard from a Grade 2 teacher who has to “evacuate” her classroom nearly every week because of the disruptive behaviour of one pupil, who trashes the place. “She says she’s going to be off on stress leave if something doesn’t happen.” Another teacher called to report a student threatened to kill her. “The kids are running the schools.”

“When you have people working in a stressful situation like that, they get sick.”

She doesn’t doubt that sick leave is increasing. “We know these numbers are up. People phone us in our office all the time in tears: ‘I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I’m so upset about the way things are going.'”

In Ottawa, the problem was flagged years ago, before the 2012 contract changes.

A  consultant’s report in 2010 warned that the cost of replacing sick teachers was soaring. The report found that expenditures associated with sick leave had increased by 21.8 per cent in four years. In an echo of comments today, trustees at the time said they couldn’t identify a reason. The report suggested implementing an “attendance management” program to decrease absences.

The board now has a program in place to identify employees who have “excessive absenteeism” and to “offer assistance and support,” as well as to “encourage regular, punctual attendance at work through the use of preventative measures,” according to a statement from the board. The program is not intended to be disciplinary.

The goal is to help sick employees return to work, including allowing them to work part-time or making accommodations to ease the transition, said trustee Lynn Scott. But employees don’t always see the program as benign, she acknowledged. “We have worked hard to make it clear that the objective is to help people, but that’s not always how it’s interpreted.”

Fraser said such programs can be helpful, depending on how they are implemented. A couple of years ago, the board sent out letters to teachers who had been sick for more than 10 days, reminding them that it was important to come to work, she said. “That went over like a lead balloon.” She recalls one teacher who had rarely been ill, but was recovering from serious surgery. That teacher had already planned to come back to school earlier than her doctor recommended because she felt an obligation to her students. “And she gets this letter saying ‘Guess what? You should be at work.’ Well, that’s insulting.”

It would be different if the board targeted problems, such as teachers who tend to be ill on Fridays and Mondays, she said.

It’s difficult to make direct comparisons with the sick leave taken by workers in private-sector jobs. Statistics Canada says full-time Canadian workers lost an average of 7.4 days in 2015, but that includes both illness and disability. 

Officials at the Ottawa Catholic School Board declined to provide information about sick-leave rates, saying this newspaper would have to request them through freedom-of-information legislation.

jmiller@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

Women have a long way to go

Re: Clinton evokes mixed feelings, June 9.

Hillary Clinton becoming the U.S. Democratic party nominee is a big deal because more than 16 million people voted for her in the primaries. Kim Campbell was chosen to lead the Progressive Conservative party in 1993 by only 1,817 delegates (out of 3,469 votes cast) and she only became prime minister because Brian Mulroney resigned. No woman in Canada has been chosen by the general public to be the leader of a federal political party, let alone prime minister and we certainly did not choose the Queen to be our head of state. As Conservative MP Michelle Rempel said, we have a long way to go in Canada.

Sandra Graham, Ottawa

A prayer for the Americans

Many believe in the power of prayer. Americans are now facing reality. It’s a rather harsh reality, really, but it’s a reality nevertheless: Hillary Clinton will be their next president.  If ever there was a time to say it, now would be it.

God Bless America.

Jill Young, Ottawa

Don’t drop non-credit courses

For the past three terms, I have been taking Dutch language lessons through the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s adult general interest classes. During our last class of the term, we were informed that the board is looking to end its offering of adult not-for-credit courses, due to financial concerns. I am very disappointed in this news.

Over the past two years, with the classes I have taken through the OCDSB, I have become proficient in Russian and Dutch, learned home maintenance skills, and gained general handyman abilities. These courses are self-funding – there needs to be a minimum number of students to fund a teacher – while still being reasonably priced. But it’s more than that.

These courses offer new learning opportunities for everyone, be it in languages, bike repair, cooking or history, and gave me the confidence to try new things. I have learned much, but I was also able to meet new people, the classes helped me feel at home in Ottawa. The loss of the community-building aspect of these courses would make the people and the city of Ottawa a much poorer place. I hope the OCDSB reverses its decision.

Kirsten Twidale, Ottawa

Perhaps we need God in our schools

I do not question the fact that our country is in crisis. Crime, shootings, suicides, climate change – the list could go on and on. Has it ever occurred to anyone that some of these basic problems can be traced back to the time we took God out of our schools and public life by legislating against prayer.  The result is that young people have no anchor, no moral compass and no hope.

Ruth Stanley, Ottawa

Substitute teachers are professionals

Re: More teachers booking off sick at Ottawa’s public school board, June 6.

As a substitute teacher for 20 years, I take exception to the comment in this article questioning “the effect on children’s education when substitutes take the place of their teachers.”

This “army of supply teachers” referred to are highly educated, fully qualified, professional teachers. We are vital, valuable and involved members of the education system. We work closely with other teachers and school administrators to help all students meet their educational and social goals. Travelling from school to school, substitute teachers also bring a wealth of experience and creative ideas to each class they teach.

We are fully certified teachers who follow the lessons plans of absent teachers and implement the Ontario curriculum to ensure a seamless continuation of each child’s education. This is our “effect.”

Heather Steele, B.Sc., B.Ed., Merrickville

A farcical plan for Canada 150

Re: Cheers, jeers at info session on controversial Mooney’s Bay playground, May 31.

The dilapidation and destruction of the Susan Holloway Fitness Park was accomplished on the sly, without notice or public discussion.  And now it is gone for good, together with major trees and a large portion of a green wonderland.  What a tribute to a great athlete and Ottawa resident – in an Olympic year.

And for what? A moment of spurious TV glory. What is projected is, in fact, a backward-looking plastic monster, a thing of a bygone era. We are to get a “playground” in the shape of Canada!! Who came up with that farcical notion? Who cares about the shape of a playground? Visitors from other places have flocked to Mooney’s Bay for many years to enjoy its natural beauty and its simple structures. Has there ever been a cry for contrived PR stunts and the creation of our own Disneyland on the Rideau?

If this is what our politicians are going to be getting up to for our sesquicentennial next year, let’s skip it altogether.

Eric Bergbusch, Ottawa

The first two reviews are a study of 22 elementary and four high schools in the west end-Merivale area; and a study of the three high schools in the east end of Ottawa. Staff say it’s too early to identify changes to particular schools, but the magnitude of the closures required is clear from the estimate of six elementary schools. That represents more than a quarter of all the public elementary schools in the area.

A high school will also probably be closed after the first two reviews, says the report. The likely targets are Gloucester or Rideau, two of the three schools that make up the review of east-end high schools. Both are less than half full, while the other high school in the area, Colonel By Secondary, is over capacity.

The third review, of 20 schools in the Alta Vista-Hunt Club area, begins in April 2017. Decisions could be implemented by September 2018. That review will probably result in the closure of another high school, says the report.

The public school board was able to reduce proposed cuts to classroom workers Monday night when it passed its most difficult budget in years.

The $864.8-million budget approved by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board still dips into classroom educators while also chopping everything from school office staff to building maintenance. 

Trustees also eliminated the board’s general-interest courses for adults, and a program that offers piano and other arts classes to kids after school.

The board, which faced a significant budget shortfall, must concentrate on its main job of educating students from kindergarten to Grade 12 during school hours, said director of education Jennifer Adams.

Trustees worked hard to minimize cuts to the classroom.

Related

• As many as six public elementary schools may close in Ottawa's west end in the next year
• Leslie Park: parents at the school with no play structure are told their kids will have to wait another year

Staff had initially suggested eliminating four ESL teachers, 10 educational assistants, who help special-ed students, and a social worker.

But at the suggestion of trustee Shawn Menard, staff was asked to find $400,000 in other cuts instead that would not affect programs or staff.

Staff came up with the savings by recalculating how many early childhood educators would be required in kindergarten classes next year, saving $250,000; chopping $100,000 from the budget for operating buildings; and cutting $50,000 from legal services.

Trustees agreed to use the $400,000 to add back one ESL teacher, five educational assistants and a social worker.

Several trustees said they are concerned about how the board will be able to provide services for an influx of 500 Syrian refugee children who don’t speak English. Some of the children are behind in school after spending several years as refugees, and others are traumatized or have medical and mental health challenges. 

The budget makes a wide range of cuts.

The extracurricular arts program that allowed students to take lessons at schools after hours is gone, saving of $48,000 a year.

Getting rid of the general-interest courses will save $267,000 a year. Last year 5,700 people took the courses, which range from piano and guitar lessons to Japanese flower arranging, scrapbooking and financial planning. About 200 courses are offered each year, said continuing education principal Bruce Whitehead.

A spokesperson for the union representing support staff told trustees that she was disappointed by cuts to school office staff, saying they are already “worked to the bone.” More work is being piled on office staff, who must operate safety buzzers, deal with concussion management and update software, said Nancy Akehurst.

The board has been making changes all year to whittle down a budget shortfall of $14.4 million that arose after several years of using an accumulated surplus to fund programs and staff not covered by provincial grants. The surplus was used, for example, to pour more money into special-education, to hire extra educational assistants and school office staff. That surplus is now gone.

Trustees also agreed with a proposal from trustee Mark Fisher to study why teachers, educational assistants and early childhood educators are booking off sick more often over the past several years, straining the budget for substitutes to replace them. 

Major budget changes:

• $2.7 million: Extra annual funding from the province when the board makes kindergartens bilingual beginning in September
• $565,000: Annual savings from reduced staff due to the introduction of bilingual kindergartens and the reduction of the amount of English taught in early French immersion classes
• $550,000: Annual savings from reducing segregated classes for children with learning disabilities from a full day to half a day
• $1.3 million: Revenue gained by increasing fees for before and after-school programs
• $403,200: Annual savings by cutting four learning resource teachers
• $293,700: Annual savings by cutting three ESL teachers
• $493,350: Annual savings by cutting 11.25 office assistants in schools 
• $235,500: Approximate annual savings by cutting five education assistants
• $267,000: Annual savings by eliminating general-interest courses for adults 
• $48,000: Annual savings by eliminating the extracurricular creative arts program, which offers piano and other lessons for children after school

School closures usually result in long, pitched battles: one parents’ group against another; parents against trustees; taxpayers with children against taxpayers without. The students are caught variously somewhere in the middle. 

It’s an unhappy but unavoidable situation: The cash-strapped Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is doing reviews of schools in different areas of the city. Six of 22 elementary schools in the west end/Merivale area could end up closing. As well, a high school in the east end is also likely to close. 

It will all raise strong emotions, but there’s no escaping the numbers. Some neighbourhoods don’t have enough kids in them to fill schools: currently 11,500 seats sit empty across the board. The school board is spending on these partly empty schoolhouses to give programming to fewer and fewer children — and the services are available elsewhere. “Maintaining excess school space negatively impacts all students,” a report to the board of trustees says. 

The province – debt-ridden though willing to spend on such schemes as electric car subsidies or paying teachers’ unions for bargaining costs – used to offer money keep under-used schools running. It will be eliminating that funding. 

These cold facts offer no consolation to parents, students, teachers or even the board. The fact is that the OCDSB had to face down a budget shortfall of $14.4 million for 2016-17. It’s cutting programming and staff. Savings need to be found somewhere. Board Chair Shirley Seward says the hope is that when schools are closed and consolidated, those that remain will be better institutions because more kids under one roof allows more variety in subjects and programming.

Sadly, it just makes sense to close some schools: Thirty-two elementary schools are at less than 65-per-cent occupancy and four high schools are half-empty. But the review must be done carefully, with proper public consultation. Parents and students need to feel they’ve been heard, their viewpoints respected. 

What the board needs to avoid is the kind of last-minute discovery that took place during the Elgin Street School debate, where, amidst a fierce fight, a law professor suddenly informed the board that its plans violated the Education Act. In short, staff had better know what they are doing.

One thing that is heartening is that the review will gather input from older students — a conversation likely to help everyone. And the plan isn’t just to close the schools with the lowest enrolment: the state of repair of the buildings, for example, will be taken into consideration. 

There will be angst. But a cautious, informed approach, showing sensitivity to people’s concerns, is the key to this process. And everyone needs to understand that sometimes you can’t escape simple economics. 

Police have charged a former teacher with a historical sexual assault dating to the 1980s, and investigators are concerned there may be more victims.

The Ottawa police’s sexual assault and child abuse unit charged Robert Clarke, 72, of Morrisburg on Wednesday, following an investigation into allegations he inappropriately touched one his male students.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred in the 1980s, according to police, when Clarke was teaching with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Clarke was charged with one count of sexual assault, but Staff Sgt. Angela McDade said there are concerns there could be more victims, and are appealing to the public for any victims to come forward.

“The Ottawa Police will respect a victim’s wishes to pursue or not pursue the matter before the courts,” said McDade. “The reporting of these incidents by victims to police is key for investigators to identify suspects and determine crime trends.”

Clarke is due to appear in court on July 11.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ottawa Police Service Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5944 or phone Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477 (TIPS) or toll-free at 1-800-222-8477.

When Melanie Good pulled the letter from school out of her son’s backpack, she was puzzled. “Student learning and accommodation planning – multi-year plan,” said the headline.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the letter said, is planning to conduct reviews “to ensure that we continue to offer the best learning environments for students while ensuring the effective use of education funding and school space.”  The reviews will “provide an opportunity to review, rethink and in some cases, re-create better learning environments for our students.”

How nice, she thought. The school board wants to make sure children at Regina Street Public School, where her son, Ryan Aikin, attends kindergarten, are learning what they should be learning. The truth dawned slowly, after Good checked the school board website and talked to a woman who works at the day-care centre run out of the school.

“She said ‘No, it means we might be on the chopping block.’ I’m like, ‘What?!’ ”

In plain English, the letter might have said: Attention parents: the school board plans to close or change programming at some schools in the west end of Ottawa, and yours may be one of them.

But Good and other parents are waking up to what is afoot, and getting ready to fight. 

The “accommodation reviews” are being done because enrolment is declining at Ottawa’s public school board and there are 11,500 empty pupil spaces sprinkled across the district. Buildings aren’t located where they are needed, leaving some schools half empty and other crowded. 

It’s a complicated puzzle that will take five painful years of reviews to resolve. This fall the board launches the first two: one of 26 schools in the west end and the other of three high schools in the east end. 

Regina Street Public School is a short walk to Mud Lake where they experience different kinds of wildlife. Tony Caldwell

As many as six elementary schools in the west end may have to close, according to staff estimates. They aren’t saying which ones, and it won’t be based on enrolment alone. But there are some strong clues. Staff have warned the board will have to consolidate English programs because the number of students enrolled in them is dwindling as the popularity of French immersion soars.

There will probably be changes among the half-dozen English-only schools in the western area that have low enrolment. Schools like Regina Street PS, which was built for 300 students but now contains about 150.

Those numbers don’t tell the whole story, parents are quick to point out. A large day-care centre in the building occupies space that used to contain several classrooms.

And, they say, numbers certainly don’t convey the spirit and value of the small school.

Regina Street PS has a friendly, small-town feel, says Good, who attended the school herself. Kids in Grade 6 say hello to her son in SK, she says. “It’s fantastic. You’re recognized as a person. You have a name … we all know everybody. Everybody is welcome, everybody is accepted. It’s where I’d like my son to go as long as possible.”

Good questions the trend toward consolidating programs into larger schools. “Where is the research that says bigger schools are better?” 

Parents also say Regina Street PS is unique because it’s right next to Mud Lake, a wetland along the Ottawa River that every student in the school gets to explore year round. Classes visits Mud Lake at least once every two weeks, says principal Rob James. The lessons from nature walks are incorporated into everything from math to art and science. Sometime the children just sit quietly, then write about what they heard. They draw pictures and conduct science experiments. Depending on the season, they can spot turtles, herons, beavers and wild turkeys.  “It’s phenomenal,” says James. Recently, the kids spotted some pileated woodpecker babies. “You could see their little mouths chirping.” 

“The kids really care about Mud Lake.”

Lorrie Vidalin, Merivale High School Council Chair, is photographed in front of the high school, which is one of the schools that is being reviewed in the west end for possible closure.

Mud Lake is an invaluable resource that would be lost to the children if the school closes, says parent Heather Amundrud. Her son, who is in Grade 1, came home recently to announce: ” ‘Guess what we saw at Mud Lake! We saw a whole family of screech owls!’ He gets so excited about it.

“The green space is so important for kids.”

Amundrud says she feels the accommodation review is being sprung on parents just as school lets out for the summer, making it more difficult for them to organize.

“It doesn’t seem fair that they are talking about school closures when school is out for the summer.  Staff isn’t there to talk to, teachers aren’t there, the parents are all gone, trying to keep kids busy over the summer, they aren’t thinking about this.

“But we’re hoping we can get organized now.”

The western area review also includes four high schools: Merivale, Sir Robert Borden, Bell, and Woodroffe.

Merivale has the lowest enrolment, at about 45-per-cent capacity. But one of those four schools is set to get an International Baccalaureate, a rigorous academic program. The school board has recommended setting up an IB program in the west because the only one now, at Colonel By Secondary School in Gloucester, is full and can’t meet the demand.

The chair of the parent council at Merivale High School, Lorrie Vidalin, says she hopes the school will be chosen for the IB program rather than closed.

The school board has already recommended the first two accommodation reviews, and will give final approval to the plan later this month. In September, staff will recommend which schools should change or close, and trustees are supposed to make a final decision by the end of February, 2017.

jmiller@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

Dozens of parents from the Regina Street Public School showed up at the first public school board meeting in September wearing matching navy T-shirts and conveying a simple message: Save our School!

Olivia Titus, a Grade 7 student at J.H. Putman, enlisted her mom to help her make a movie featuring students explaining why their school should remain open. The soundtrack is the catchy pop song Stand up For it. 

Across the city, parents and kids are rallying to fight a proposal by Ottawa’s largest school board to close eight schools.

And two “accommodation reviews” that began this month are just the beginning. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board plans five years of reviews that will result in the closing of schools across the city and widespread changes to programs and grade configurations. That’s if things go according to plan.

But when it comes to the emotional issue of school closures, anything can happen — or not happen.

Trustees are trying to fix a serious mismatch between where schools are and where they are needed. An estimated 15,000 empty pupil spaces are sprinkled at schools across a district that serves about 72,000 students. Some schools are half empty and others in fast-growing areas are crowded.

The board must respond to population trends, says chair Shirley Seward. Staff warn the board can’t afford to keep paying for unused classrooms, or padding the funding to help under-enrolled schools maintain a variety of programs. The province, which funds school boards, is giving a big shove toward school closures by removing the “top up” funding for schools with low enrolment.

It all makes sense on paper. But few things are harder than closing a school. Parents and students are attached. They love the teachers, the programs, the sense of community a school helps to create, the building itself.

“It isn’t just a building,” explains Hari Adnani, a Grade 7 student at J.H. Putman who is circulating a petition among students to keep the school open. “It’s kind of like a house of memories.” 

Hari Adnani, 11, left, with fellow J.H. Putman students Erin Childs, 11, Jonas Wright, 12, and Dominick Martin. They are fighting to keep the school open.

Most parents want their children to attend a school in their own neighbourhood, says trustee Shawn Menard. But maintaining community schools that serve everyone is increasingly difficult because of financial pressures, shifting demographics, and the skyrocketing popularity of French immersion.  

Enrolment in English programs is dwindling at elementary schools. Four of the schools on the closure hit list offer English programs. Staff say some consolidation of English and French immersion programs at specialty elementary schools is needed to meet the demand for French immersion, strengthen English programming and make it easier to configure classes. 

For a snapshot of these trends, consider the eight schools that feed into Woodroffe High School. They now include three schools that offer only the English program, one school that offers only French immersion, and three schools that offer both. The report recommends changes that would flip that balance on its head. Two schools would close, and programming would switch at those that remain. In the end? The area would be left with one English program school, three French immersion schools, and two schools that offer both. 

It’s devilishly complicated. There are flow charts, diagrams and hundreds of pages of reports for the first two accommodation reviews. The western review includes 26 schools. The staff report recommends closing seven elementary and middle schools: Greenbank, J.H. Putman, D. Aubrey Moodie, Grant, Century, Leslie Park and Regina Street. Programming and grade configurations would change at many others. If one piece of the puzzle changes — for instance, trustees decide to keep open a school that has been recommended for closure — plans might have to be altered for multiple schools. Staff consider not only the enrolment at each school, but grade configurations and programs, the condition of buildings, and which high schools the elementary schools feed into.

The eastern secondary review includes Rideau, Gloucester and Colonel By high schools. Staff recommend the closure of Rideau High School, which is less than half full.

The board plans to conduct seven accommodation reviews, covering most of the city. 

Trustees and parents still bear battle scars from the past few decades of school closure debates. The last time the public board closed a school was in 2015, when Munster Elementary was shuttered. It had shrunk to 58 students. 

Still, some trustees are optimistic things will be easier this time around. They are guided by policy decisions. They’ve decided, for instance, to eventually eliminate middle schools so students have fewer transitions. The western review recommends closing three middle schools in the area and enlarging three high schools to make room for Grades 7 to 12.

 Trustees have also agreed that high schools should be large enough to offer a range of programs — three academic streams and two French-immersion options. In the eastern review, staff recommend that students from Rideau High School move to Gloucester. Both schools are now less than half full.

Decisions are supposed to be made by March 7, 2017. Most changes would take effect in September 2017.

Schools that staff recommend be closed

Rideau High School: Students would attend Gloucester High School

D. Aubrie Moodie Intermediate School: Students in Grades 7 and 8 would attend Bell High School, and Grade 6 students would attend Bayshore, Bells Corners or Lakeview elementary schools, based on where they live and program choice

Greenbank Middle School: Students would attend Sir Robert Borden High School

J.H. Putman Public School: English students would attend Pinecrest Public School and early French immersion program students would attend either Agincourt Road Public School or Woodroffe Avenue Public School, depending on place of residence.

Leslie Park Public School: Students would attend Briargreen Public School

Grant Public School: Its alternative students would attend Churchill Public School

Important dates for western review

Oct. 27: First public meeting. Sir Robert Borden High School, 7 p.m.

Jan. 10, 20017: Second public meeting. Woodroffe High School, 7 p.m.

Feb. 13, 2017: Final report to board’s committee of the whole

March 1, 2017: Board makes a decision

Important Dates for eastern secondary review

 Nov. 1: First public meeting, Rideau High School, 7 p.m.

Jan. 11, 20017: Second public meeting. Gloucester High School, 7 p.m.

Feb. 15, 2017: Final report to board’s committee of the whole

March 7, 2017: Board makes a decision

jmiller@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

If you’re a student in a gifted class at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, chances are that you’re a boy. And chances are even that your parents paid for a private educational psychologist’s report.

Those are two of the most striking findings in a report on the board’s program for gifted children that examines everything from which kids qualify to the best ways to educate them. Staff suggest an overhaul,

including eliminating specialized gifted classes for children in Grades 1 to 4.

About 62 per cent of the students in special gifted classes are boys, a situation that both staff and trustees at the public board say indicates problems with the program.

Changes will be controversial among parents who support specialized classes. About 100 parents and some children packed a board committee meeting Tuesday, including Joni Feldman and her son Jake, 11, who is in his second year in a class for gifted kids. Jake was bored in the regular classroom, said his mom. “The teachers are overwhelmed with all the needs of the students. He was ignored.”

The class for gifted children provides the stimulation he needs, said Feldman. “Now he loves school.”

Parents spoke emotionally about how special classes helped their kids, and expressed fear that teachers in regular classrooms don’t have the skill or time to provide specialized lesson plans. They won a small victory Tuesday when trustees voted to delay public consultations for as long as six weeks while staff provide more information.

The gifted program hasn’t changed much in decades and has failed to keep up with educational philosophy and parental preferences, says the report.

About three per cent of the 73,000 students at Ottawa’s largest school board are identified as gifted, a label that can be both a blessing and a curse. Gifted children can master skills and concepts quickly and are original thinkers, but some also struggle with feeling different and trying to meet the high expectations of parents and teachers.

There is no consensus among academic experts on the ideal way to make sure gifted children flourish in school.  

It’s an emotional topic for kids, their parents and even school board trustees, several of whom recounted their own experiences during a discussion of the topic at a recent meeting.

Board chair Shirley Seward said she was an extremely bright child who was tormented for getting top marks. Trustee Sandra Schwartz said she was “bored stiff” in school and developed behaviour problems. Trustee Christine Boothby said her daughter was bullied in elementary school because she was smart, but later thrived in a segregated gifted class. 

Board staff have recommended a shift toward educating gifted children in regular classrooms. That’s the trend at other school boards in the province, but change is slow at the OCDSB, says trustee Mark Fisher.

Ottawa’s board has a long tradition of segregating children into specialized classes, whether they are gifted or have a learning disability, says Fisher. 

He finds it frustrating, saying attempts to change segregated programs have been opposed and labelled as veiled budget cuts, rather than considered for their merits.

At a time when the board is struggling to balance its budget, busing large numbers of kids out of their neighbourhoods to specialized classes also doesn’t make sense economically, he says. The board estimates it will save $1.6 to $2.1 million a year in busing if the changes in the report are recommended.

Parents of younger children already seem to be voting for the regular classroom in a neighbourhood school. The board used to have a waiting list for entrance to gifted classes in the primary grades. Over the last few years demand has plummeted. Some gifted classes now have as few as five students in them, according to staff.

The report also acknowledges the tremendous variety among gifted kids, and the need to expand beyond one-size-fits-all programs for them. A child might be a whiz at math, for instance, but also have a reading disability. 

Proposed changes to the gifted program could be implemented as soon as September 2017.

Some of the key issues: 

What’s the definition of gifted?

The Ontario Ministry of Education uses a definition of general intelligence: “An unusually advanced degree of general intellectual ability that requires differentiated learning experiences of a depth and breadth beyond those normally provided in the regular school program to satisfy the level of educational potential indicated.” However, that definition is widely seen as outdated, and is under review.

Educators now stress that giftedness is complex and varied. Some question whether labels are useful, while others suggest the definition be expanded to include children with unusual abilities in music, creative arts, sports or leadership skills. 

Who’s in the gifted class? 

Students who are poor or have racially and culturally diverse backgrounds are less likely to be identified as gifted, according to academic research. There is no specific data for the Ottawa board, but staff say they assume that’s the case here, too, and want to make the selection process more equitable. 

As for why Ottawa’s gifted classes are dominated by boys, staff have no explanation other than society’s tendency toward gender discrimination. The academic research suggests that, “Parents and teachers treat males and females differently, for example,” said board superintendent Olga Grigoriev in a written reply.

“Girls are not as encouraged in mathematics as boys, which may eventually lead girls to have poorer perceptions of their abilities. Also, gifted girls receive less recognition for their achievements so this may contribute to under-representation in gifted programs.”

How do students get selected as gifted?

Usually it’s through committees set up at each school, which consider whether to designate children as “exceptional,” including everything from giftedness to learning disabilities and autism. The committees include the principal, teacher or other board staff, and parents. Either parents or the principal can ask for a committee to be convened. The committee considers a range of information about the child, from teacher reports to comments from parents, but a key piece of evidence is often a psycho-educational assessment.

Board staff do those assessments, but it can take a while. Parents who can afford it often pay for a private assessment, which can cost upwards of $1,000. Among students designated as gifted, about half have had private assessments paid for by their parents, according to a board survey.

Several trustees have expressed concern about the low number of school board assessments. While no one faults parents for obtaining private assessments of their children, the situation is not fair, says trustee Donna Blackburn. “If you have the money, you get the test.”

How much does pressure from parents count?

Some parents see the label of gifted as a “badge of honour” and lobby to have their children designated, say several trustees. “I literally had a pregnant woman call me to book a spot in the gifted program,” says Blackburn.

However, the school board has the final say and relies on the professionalism of staff to conduct fair assessments. 

What’s the best way to teach gifted children? 

This question fiercely divides educators, parents and students. 

About 60 per cent of gifted students at the board attend specialized classes. The remainder are in regular classrooms but receive extra support through an individual education plan (IEP).

The proposed shift to integrating more gifted kids into regular classrooms may be controversial. Most parents with gifted children in specialized classes are satisfied, according to a board survey. But parents with gifted children in regular classrooms are not as happy. Among elementary parents, for example, 69 per cent said the regular classroom instruction with an IEP did not meet their gifted child’s academic needs.

Major staff recommendations:

1. Segregated classes for the gifted in Grades 1 to 4 would be eliminated. Most — 95 per cent — of gifted children now spend those years at their home schools in the regular program anyway, says staff. Students now typically enter the gifted program in Grade 5.

2. Segregated classes for the gifted would remain in Grades 5 to 8, but more variety would be offered. One stream of classes would be offered for children who are gifted in one area, but challenged in another. Another stream would be for the profoundly gifted (above the 99.6 percentile of the population). An “inquiry” stream would be available to all.

3. The number of secondary schools offering segregated gifted classes would be reduced from four to three, eliminating the program at Merivale High School. It now has only 33 gifted students enrolled in Grades 9 to 12.

4. A new screening process would be introduced in Grade 3 that would include measures to try to get rid of bias in the selection process and possibly broaden the definition of gifted.

5. Students would be offered a place in a gifted program at one school; parents could not request placement at another school.

By the numbers:

2,249: Total number of students identified as “gifted” at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in 2014-15. That’s about three per cent of all students in the board.

60: Percentage of those students who are in specialized classes. The remaining 40 per cent get help within a regular classroom.

64: Percentage of students in specialized gifted classes in elementary schools in 2014-15 who were boys.

60: Percentage of students in specialized gifted classes in secondary schools in 2014-15 who were boys.

.77 per cent: Percentage of the total school population in Ontario identified as gifted in the 2011-12 school year. (Note: some school boards do not designate any students as gifted.)

3.36 per cent: Percentage of the total school population at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board identified as gifted in 2011-12

Rideau High School might be less than half full, but it houses valuable services that help the whole community, a public meeting on school closures heard Tuesday.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is considering a proposal to close Rideau and send the students to Gloucester High School.

The proposal is part of an “accommodation study” that includes the three east-side high schools: Rideau, Colonel By and Gloucester.

Enrolment at Rideau High School is projected to sink to 400 students next year in a building that can hold 966. Gloucester High School is much larger, with capacity for 1,608 students, but now has a utilization rate of only 40 per cent.

Several speakers at the meeting said Rideau High School is an important community hub.

About 300 adults take English as a second language lessons at the school on St. Laurent Boulevard, including many Syrian refugees, said Sheila Perry, a representative of the Overbrook Community Association and a retired teacher. The building also houses a preschool.

Closing Rideau would be a “travesty,” she said.

Another speaker said the closure of Rideau appeared to be a “done deal,” and would affect many immigrant families who don’t speak English and are less able to lobby the school board.

Director of education Jennifer Adams told the crowd of about 90 in the auditorium of Rideau High School that all students at the board deserve a “first-class experience.”

Neither Rideau nor Gloucester has an enrolment large enough to offer the diversity of programs students deserve, say staff. 

Trustees have agreed that high schools should all offer French immersion and three academic streams. Rideau does not offer French immersion and has limited course offerings compared with larger high schools.

The ESL and daycare programs can be moved to other locations, said staff.

Rideau High School is a culturally diverse school that offers excellent programming, including for First Nations, Métis and Inuit students, says a staff report. At Gloucester High School, more than 30 per cent of students are learning English, and about 21 per cent have individual learning plans to meet special learning needs.

Colonel By Secondary, the other school in the study, is over capacity. It’s home to the popular international baccalaureate, a rigorous academic program attended by students from across the city.

Another accommodation study is under way in the west side of the city that includes 26 schools, and recommends seven of them close.

Both studies are part of a five-year effort that will change programs and close schools across the city. The board is trying to reduce the number of unused pupil spaces, and create a better balance between where school buildings are located and where they are needed.

The Ontario Ministry of Education is withdrawing the extra funding it once provided to help keep under-enrolled schools open.

Do you regularly snuggle up with your seven-year-old to read a bedtime story? If so, you are in a minority among Ottawa parents. That’s the word from the kids themselves, who were asked about what goes on at home as part of their Education Quality and Accountability Office testing.

In addition to administering standardized tests for math, reading and writing, Ontario’s EQAO asks children in Grades 3 and 6 questions about “parent engagement” — and the results are eye-opening.

Only 31 per cent of Ottawa children in Grade 3 said they read together with their parents “every day or almost every day.” (That is the average for the four Ottawa school boards.) The provincial average is the same. 

“That’s heartbreaking, isn’t it?” said Joel Westheimer, the University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa. He suspects screen time is edging out reading.

“A lot of parents these days are defaulting to the whole family being on devices and being occupied by technology. It’s not just the kids that are absorbed by devices, but the parents as well. So many parents are bringing work home, answering emails. There are a lot of families where the reading time slips away.”

Oscar Alexander-Ramsay (L), Denny Alexander and Dominic Alexander-Ramsay (R) read before going to bed, November 16, 2016. Photo by Jean Levac 

The results may also reflect growing economic inequality, he said. Low-income single parents or those working several jobs are often busy. “That’s going to result in a lot of parents having less and less time with their children, even though we know the immense importance of that time.”

Different cultural traditions also play a role, said Esther Geva, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. In some cultures, parents don’t read to their children, she said. “The kids go to school, that’s where they can learn to read.” Parents may supervise homework and hire a tutor if their child is struggling.

“They still care about their kids’ education, but the mechanisms they use are different.”

It’s also possible some Grade 3 kids are devouring Geronimo Stilton and Judy Moody books on their own, and parents figure they don’t need to read with them anymore.

Reading with children when they are young is key to developing their literacy. But at what age do parents stop? In Grade 3, children can be from seven to nine years old.

Plenty of experts say it’s valuable to read to older kids, too. It allows them to enjoy a more sophisticated story, for one thing. Children’s reading abilities doesn’t usually catch up to their listening comprehension until around Grade 8, says educator Jim Trelease, author of the Read-Aloud Handbook, in an article. Reading together is also a great way to introduce difficult issues, he writes.

“For example, you can tell your child, ‘I don’t want you to hang out with so and so,’ but that’s a lecture that will probably go in one ear and out the other. But if you read a book about a kid who gets in trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd, your child is going to experience that directly, and she’s going to experience it with you at her side, and you can talk about it together.”

For parent Denny Alexander and his partner Robert, reading to their two boys at bedtime is a ritual that everyone enjoys. “To them, it’s big deal,” said Alexander. “If something cuts into that reading time, they are not happy about it.” Oscar is 8, in Grade 3, and Dominik is 9, so they’re at a transitional age, he said. The boys read on their own, often graphic novels like Captain Underpants and the Bone series. Their parents read more complicated books like the Harry Potter series aloud, a chapter most nights. 

The question about reading was just one of several EQAO questions meant to measure how much support parents give their children at home.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board summarized the results in a recent report that found parents in that board tended to be “less engaged” than the provincial average. 

Fewer than half of the kids in Grade 3 at the public board, for example, said their parents regularly looked at their agendas or talked to them about the reading, writing or mathematics work they did at school. 

By Grade 6, the percentages were even lower. 

That seems puzzling, given Ottawa’s high average income and education levels, which tend to equate with more parental involvement.

However, it might also be a reflection on the questions, which are ambiguous, or in the opinion of Westheimer, downright odd. Take this one: “We talk about the mathematics work I do in school.” Does that mean conversations while doing homework? Is it reasonable or helpful to expect parents to chat with little Johnny every day about what math problems he did in school?

“When you are outside of the school system, you recognize that question for the ridiculous question it is,” said Westheimer. “Maybe you could talk to kids about history, or social studies, or things that you can have a conversation about.”

The questions reflect the Ontario Education Ministry’s “myopic obsession” with measuring math and literacy achievement in young kids, he said.

“It’s particularly shocking at that young age (Grade 3). Why aren’t they asking kids about their friends at school, or whether they are in the play, or how did they do in the soccer game?” Those are more developmentally appropriate questions for kids that age, he said.

jmiller@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

Do you read with your kids? At what age did you stop reading to them? How do you carve time from busy days to read? We’d like to hear from you. Join the debate in the comments sections below.

A former Ottawa high school basketball coach and teacher currently facing dozens of charges of sexual assault against 11 students more than 30 years ago is now facing more charges.

On Thursday, Ottawa police investigators arrested and charged Donald Greenham, 73, of Addison, Ont. with six new criminal offenses, including gross indecency and indecent assault on a male, as per Criminal Code charges that existed at the time of the alleged offenses.

The investigation began June 20 when a victim came forward to report the abuse in Ottawa and out of town between 1972 and 1975. The charges relate to several incidents involving 13- and 14-year-old victims and occurred while Greenham worked as a guidance counselor and coach with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Greenham was released on bail in August on 14 charges related to gross indecency and indecent assault charges against four students between 1970 and 1982 while he was employed as a teacher and coach. The three boys and one girl were between 14 and 17 years old at the time of the alleged offenses.

In October, Greenham was arrested again and charged with three dozen more charges involving seven alleged victims ranging in age from 13 to 18 years old when the offences allegedly occurred from 1971 and 1981.

Greenham is scheduled to make his next court appearance on on Nov. 22.

The Ottawa police continue their investigation and are concerned there may be more victims.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ottawa police service sexual assault/child abuse unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5944 or phone Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477 (TIPS) or toll free at 1-800-222-8477.

A teacher on vacation posts a picture on Facebook depicting her frolicking on the beach in a swimming suit. Is she risking her professional reputation and putting herself in danger of discipline?

That’s one interpretation of a guideline on personal social media use handed out to some teachers in Ottawa’s public school board last week.

The guideline warns against posting pictures involving drugs, alcohol or “scantily clad photos on the beach.”

It does not elaborate on what constitutes “scantily clad” — either of photos or, presumably, of teachers. 

Teachers are held to a higher standard of behaviour than some other professions. The Supreme Court has ruled that how they act outside the classroom is relevant to their ability to do their job. And The Ontario College of Teachers warns teachers to be very cautious in their use of social media.

But is a ban on beach photos going too far? That’s debatable, as is the wording of the guideline. 

The phrase “scantily clad” could be seen as pejorative, and it’s usually used to describe women. The definition offered by the Urban Dictionary is a chick wearing short orange shorts at a Hooters restaurant, while the Free Dictionary entry is illustrated with a picture of a foxy female in a pink miniskirt.

Men at the beach could be “scantily clad” too, but the phrase could be interpreted as targeted toward women.

It’s good that employers and regulatory bodies recognize that many teachers are on social networks, and provide guidelines to help them, said Matthew Johnson, director of education at MediaSmarts, a Canadian non-profit centre for digital and media literacy.

However, the beach example seems to reflect a sexual double standard that is common in media and society, he said. “The attitudes we bring to the digital world don’t come out of nowhere.”

The world of social media tends to be “heavily gendered,” says Johnson, citing one study that found women in their teens and early 20s reported facing both pressure to post idealized photos of themselves and judgment if the images were deemed too sexual. “It’s interesting that (beach photos) is a particular concern. As is often the case, there seems to be more concern and surveillance of women than of men online.”

The guideline given to some public board teachers wasn’t a formal board document. It was an excerpt from a presentation given to school principals on the subject, says Michele Giroux, a spokeswoman for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Some principals may have shared the advice with teachers to “create an opportunity for discussion about how we manage the boundaries of our personal and professional lives in a social media context,” said Giroux. 

The wording may be awkward, but the advice in the guideline is sound, says Janet Fraser, the president of the union representing elementary teachers.

 “Teachers are always teachers, whether they are on their own time or whether they are in the classroom. 

“It’s always been that way, that’s nothing new. Teachers have been told that since I’ve been in the profession: your private and personal life also needs to be somewhat above reproach … that is certainly what our union would tell teachers, and it’s what the board would tell them.”

The guideline is probably meant to protect teachers, she says. “I’d be telling them, as a union representative, that, for your own personal protection, we would agree with that. Whether it’s reasonable or not, I don’t know. Could (beach photos) come back to become a problem for them? Yes, it could.

“If one of my teachers asked me, ‘Is it a good idea to post picture of me in a bikini on a beach?’ I’d probably say no. I’d probably say, ‘Err on the side of caution.’ ”

Curious students and their parents search social media to find out about teachers, she said. Employers may also check Facebook accounts. “If the only thing on your Facebook account is pictures of you partying and drinking alcohol … ”

The Ontario College of Teachers warns its members to be very cautious when using social media in both their professional and personal lives.

“Teaching is a public profession,” the professional advisory on social media states. “Practitioners are individuals with private lives, however off-duty conduct matters. Sound judgment and due care should be exercised.”

Teachers should communicate with students using educational platforms such as class websites, and only at appropriate times of the day, the advisory says. No communicating with students using personal Facebook or other social media platforms, for example, and no using private cellphones or email addresses to call,  text or exchange “personal photos”.

 Teachers should decline “friend” requests from students and not initiate them, advice that is echoed in the Ottawa public board’s informal guidelines, which say teachers should not follow students on Facebook and Twitter or comment on their social media posts.

The college also says teachers should adjust privacy settings on their personal social media accounts to make sure students cannot view them or make posts.

Presumably that rules out the use of social media platforms such as Twitter. It’s a delicate balance.

Teachers entering the profession in their 20s have grown up using social media, says Johnson. “Many of them probably have social networking accounts and are unwilling to abandon them. It’s an important part of their lives.”

Photos posted on sites such as Facebook can be copied by others, says Brian Jamieson, a spokesman for the college. “Once you post something and put it out there publicly, it can be used against you with another caption or cutline or whatever.”

Earlier this year, for example, some high school teachers in Markham were criticized by parents after a group photo surfaced of them celebrating after an axe-throwing contest by raising their middle fingers. A teacher had posted the photo on a personal, but publicly accessible Facebook account, and a student copied and reposted it.

The college advisory says teachers should ask themselves a few questions: “Is this picture or comment something I would be comfortable with my students, their parents/guardians, my supervisor, my family or the media seeing? Would my peers or supervisors consider what I have posted as reasonable and professional?”

A guideline on social media from the union representing elementary school teachers is even more restrictive. It recommends teachers be cautious not only with social media, but also with email. Email is not a good way to converse with either individual students or their parents, it says. Emailing students can promote a casual conversation style that blurs professional boundaries, says the guideline.  “It is also often perceived with suspicion by parents and administrators.”

The guideline also suggests teachers regularly conduct Google searches on themselves to make sure no harmful information is being posted about them online.

In one instance, a student set up a fake Facebook account in a teacher’s name and posted offensive comments, the union said.

jmiller@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JacquieAMiller