Parents desperate for new school worry about delay over green space fears
cbc.ca
We need your help!
Immediate action is required to ensure construction for a new facility begins in 2024 at Preston/Somerset so that children can access an adequate, appropriate and safe learning space no later than 2026.
Like you, we parents/guardians live in this community and also care about preserving green spaces. We agree that the proposed development plan should not force the community to make a choice between two essential public needs: a public park and a desperately needed building for hundreds of children in our community to safely learn, grow and thrive.
Support our efforts!
- Sign our online petition.
- Talk to your family and friends about the school and share the petition.
- Write your City Councillor to add your voice that we need a new school now.
- Attend our upcoming info-session for the school community (date to be set).
Join our mailing list
Urgent Need For A New School Building
Here is a list of issues with the old, temporary, rented annex building the school is in:
- It is over capacity and overcrowded for the 300 students and the staff.
- A 5th portable classroom was added in 2023 to accommodate the overflow of students, but the site is not municipally zoned for it.
- Repeated failed fire safety inspections as hallways and staircases are crowded with printers, a staff refrigerator and cabinets due to an overall lack of space.
- Only 3 toilet stalls on the second floor for 200 children, which permanently smells of urine.
- No ventilation system, leading to poor overall air quality.
- No library room, a cornerstone of any elementary school.
- The current rental arrangement lacks essentials such as an adequate gym.
- There are no outdoor playing structures for the children.
- Lack of appropriate specialized and individualized learning spaces: Learning specialists such as social workers/speech therapists use a supply closet or open hallways to meet students who need one-on-one support. This is inadequate and compromises students’ privacy and dignity.
- Teaching and non-teaching staff do not have access to an adequate staff and lunch room.
École élémentaire publique Louise-Arbour in the news
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School Timeline
- 2016/2017: A memorandum of understanding is signed between CEPEO and the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation to build a new public elementary school on the Gladstone Village site (corner of Gladstone/Preston).
- September 2017: École Centre-Nord elementary public school opens in a temporary space. It's thanks to family activism for a French-language public school in Ottawa Centre that the school opens its doors on Beech Street in an old temporary building leased from the OCDSB English-language school board while awaiting funding to build a new school. At that time, the expected wait for a new school building was two years.
- 2018-2022: The CEPEO submits several funding requests to build a new school to the Ontario Ministry of Education, all of which are turned down.
- March 2019: École Centre-Nord is renamed École élémentaire publique Louise-Arbour.
- 2020: The memorandum of understanding signed between CEPEO and the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation expires.
- September 2021: A new memorandum of understanding is signed between the CEPEO and the City to build the new school on the 1010 Somerset site.
- January-February 2022: Following multiple refusals by the Ministry of Education to fund the new school project, the school community leads a letter-writing campaign to the Ontario government demanding funding, which goes entirely unanswered.
- April 2022: A group of parents sends a formal notice to the Ontario government that the delay in funding the school is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (section 23: Right to minority-language education).
- May 2022: The Ontario government's Ministry of Education grants $14.5 million in funding to École Louise-Arbour.
- October 2022: The CEPEO notifies the school community that plans for the new school on the City’s site will be unveiled in early 2023.
- February 2023: The memorandum of understanding signed between the CEPEO and the City expired, due to a lack of confirmed funding for the school. The parties sign a new memorandum of understanding, which is not made public.
- May 2023: CEPEO presents a development plan for the new school at 1010 Somerset Street, developed in partnership with the City of Ottawa. The City of Ottawa launches a three-month public consultation in early May 2023.
- June-October 2023: The City of Ottawa launches a survey for the development of the 1010 Somerset Street site.
- October 5, 2023: The City of Ottawa closes its public consultation for the development of the 1010 Somerset Street site.
- November 2 and 9, 2023: Public consultations (in person and virtual) on the 1010 Somerset Street West plan are to be held, but are then canceled by the City without a new date so that it can redraw the development plan for the site.
- 2024 (planned): A report on the City's survey and consultation is to be submitted to determine the project's continuation.