Intro: Rural school left out in the cold

Huntley Centennial is currently operating at 135% capacity (555 students in a facility intended for 360) and houses nine portables – some of which have been in use for over a decade. For the first two months of school the children did not have direct access to the library or the computer lab because both facilities were used as classrooms until new portables were ready. We were forced to seek corporate sponsorship to help pay for badly needed library renovations and resources and still the library is severely lacking for a school of this size. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Carp is growing at a phenomenal rate amplifying an already desperate situation. With the provincial cap of 20 students per classroom for JK to Grade 3, we estimate the school will need approximately 15 portables by next year. There are no plans to renovate or add to the existing infrastructure that hasn’t seen an upgrade since the 1970’s. Parents are aware of board’s funding difficulties and appreciate that other schools are in need. But the students of Huntley Centennial are being severely underserved with this facility and we are tired of being passed over year after year. In order to provide an environment that considers the safety, comfort and educational wellbeing of our children, parents are planning a series of events to raise visibility with the board as the school most in need of an addition.

Background

• Huntley Centennial Public School (HCPS) is a JK-8, dual track EFI institution

• HCPS has had a strong school council for decades with a history of involved parents. Plenty of in-school volunteers as well as activists within the community. We are aware of board’s challenges but after years of fighting for an addition, we want action because the situation is urgent.

Huntley stats:

• HCPS built in 1967, remodelled in 1970’s no further additions since then

• 9 portables at the moment, likely 15 next year due to province cap of 20 students per classroom in JK-3.

• HCPS has a planning capacity of 360 students under new cap of 20.

• currently 555 students enrolled this year

• Utilization factor for ‘06/07 school year is 135.6% which is the board’s forecast for the next school year. So, the board’s planning numbers are off by almost 10%

• By 2010 our utilization factor will be 153% according to the board’s planning numbers (which we know are off by about 10% this year)

• Huntley students are active in the community (Scouts and band and grade 8’s run the food drive for the WC food cupboard, volunteers for the Diefenbooker race, Arts Festival in spring at Agriculture Hall to display talents of students etc.)

Board facts:

• The Board initiated a school accommodation review in West Carleton in September 2006. Board staff focused on the potential closure of Torbolton P.S., which is significantly underutilized, rather than proposing to address the overcrowding at Huntley and program viability issues associated with program locations and attendance boundaries for all three of the schools in the Fitzroy and Torbolton areas. Trustee Lynn Scott successfully introduced a motion to extend the study by one year for implementation in September 2008, to enable a proper comprehensive review for Torbolton, Stonecrest and Fitzroy Centennial that could still result in a school closure. She has also indicated she plans to move ahead with obtaining approval for an addition to Huntley Centennial. The Board’s Draft Capital Plan dated June 2006 proposed an accommodation review for the West Carleton area in 2007.

• West Carleton: Board staff projected utilizations for 2010, as of September 2006, with status quo program locations and attendance boundaries, are: Fitzroy Centennial 74.6%, Huntley Centennial 153.6%, Stonecrest 95.9%, Torbolton 41.1%

• the numbers continue to grow in Carp due to urban sprawl, new growth closer to Hwy 7 yet still in Huntley zoned area

• Trustee Lynn Scott announced at an all-candidates debate during HCPS school council meeting that HCPS was her first priority in terms of accommodations.
   

Council facts:

• 2003 board staff’s proposed solution to overcrowding in Kanata and Carp was to move 7 & 8 students to West Carleton Secondary School (WCSS.) Parents in those communities banded together to stop the movement away from JK-8 schools.

• 2003 HCPS school council issued a survey to all parents. Survey results were overwhelmingly against moving 7 & 8’s out of HCPS.

• HCPS has had a strong school council for decades with a history of involved parents. Plenty of in-school volunteers as well as activists within the community.

Safety and Health concerns:

• Doors cannot be locked from the outside once classes are in session because portable students must have access to the school at all times. This means anyone can have access to the school since it’s impossible to monitor all doors all day.

• The front door of the building is not visible by the office staff. This is a breach of security as anyone can walk in the front door and slip by without following procedure and entering the office area to sign in and receive a visitor’s badge.

• There is only one Junior Kindergarten classroom with the appropriate facilities for children aged four. All other JK students, using the “buddy system”, must use the same washroom as all other students leaving the children out of sight and beyond supervision from their teachers. And, because there is no security system, there is nothing to stop these very young children from simply walking out of the school.

• The primary school yard is not fenced and sits facing a busy road with no physical barrier for the children. Despite their best efforts, teachers cannot sufficiently enforce the playground boundaries considering the number of four & five year-olds in the playground at once.

• The boy’s washroom contains stand-up urinals and the tile underneath is pitted and worn from age. The tile and grout is very difficult to sanitize and cannot be kept clean with the number of boys at a young age using the facility (remember we have four kindergarten classes who use the main washroom). This is a health hazard the way the bathroom is used although custodial staff work very hard to keep it safe and clean.

• There is no supervised area for sick children. Currently if a child is ill they are left in the main hallway until a parent or guardian can pick them up. If a child is very ill and needs to lie down, they rest in the principal’s office, which leaves the principal no where to receive confidential calls from other parents and no where to deal with other children who may require attention. There is no washroom area in the main office to clean up after a child has vomited or bled. There is also no space for a refrigerator to hold ice or items for a food cupboard.

• HCPS has had portables for 28 years and today it houses nine. Some of the portables are over a decade old raising the issue of mould and air quality.

• Windows in many of the classrooms simply do not open putting air quality again in question.

• The gym is not large enough to host all students at once because they are literally sitting shoulder to shoulder. Parents are also concerned that fire and safety regulations are being breeched when the entire student population is in attendance. The bottom line - the auditorium is completely inadequate.

Other shortcomings:

• The school has no music and design and technology rooms for grade 7 & 8 programming

• This is offset by the tremendous leadership opportunities offered to the 7 & 8’s by the staff in this JK-8 school

• HCPS has won awards for the Arts Festival and focuses heavily on the arts curriculum. School Council donates approximately 1/6 of fundraising towards Arts programming yearly. Every year the 7 & 8’s put on an excellent play in the gymnasium with consistent sell-out crowds year after year, despite not having proper drama facilities.

• No rooms for paraprofessionals (speech therapists etc.) who must use a temporary space for meeting with children and parents

What are we planning?

• Various parents will speak for two minutes at each open board meeting to highlight the accommodation situation at HCPS and repeatedly insist on an addition

• Tour of school for Trustees and MPP Norm Sterling March 7th and 23rd. Of course, most of the meetings will take place in the portables so board members can see what it’s like to run back and forth in the dead of winter

• We’re holding an “I love Huntley” campaign to highlight the need for an addition. Children, adults, friends and family can sign a heart which will be added to a card to create the largest valentine card on record

• Again, we’ll be going out to the corporate community to seek more funds for library renovation

• Members of the parent council also attend board accommodation working group sessions as the Huntley representatives

• Media campaign - encourage well respected journalists in the community to help spread our message

• Parent letter writing campaign to the board, the province, our trustee

• Motioning the board for an addition- Trustee Lynn Scott to do on our behalf

• White paper regarding facilities audit. Paper to be presented to board and province

• Petition campaign

• Accommodations Website – will be used as a communications tool for accommodations

• 100 days- compiling a list of 100 reasons why we need an addition. List will be presented to the board

• School Comparison matrix – comparison of other regional schools to find out what differences there are and what we need to offer at our school to keep up with other OCDSB schools. Info will be used in white paper and letters to the province

• Creating form letter for all parents to sign and mail in to the Ministry of Education requesting more capital funding

Huntley enrolment history:

When HCPS was built in 1967, there was no Junior Kindergarten offered, and class sizes were larger for all grades. The addition built in the mid-1970’s created four classroom-sized rooms, one of which was fitted as a science room for the Intermediate grades. Additional washroom facilities were roughed in, but not completed until about 2000.

As of 1985, Huntley Centennial was assigned an official Ministry-rated capacity (based in part on classroom space loaded at 35 pupils per class) of 492 pupils, and an operational capacity (calculated by board staff) of 442 pupils. Since that time, changes in program delivery and Ministry loading of classrooms have reduced the operational capacity of the school. By 1990, the official Ministry-rated capacity was 449 pupils, with an operational capacity (calculated by board staff) of 404 pupils. With changes introduced by the Harris government after 1995, classrooms were loaded at 25 pupils rather than 35, and the official capacity calculations were reduced. As of 2003, board staff considered HCPS to have a “planning capacity” of 387.5 pupils. As of June 2006, board staff considered HCPS to have a “planning capacity” of 360 pupils, reflecting the McGuinty government’s directives regarding a cap of 20 on class sizes in the primary grades.

The calculation of utilization has changed over time. Prior to 1998 it was generally calculated based on the total enrolment as a percentage of the operational capacity defined by board staff. With the new Ministry definitions of pupil places and the introduction of the concept of Average Daily Enrolment (ADE), in which kindergarten students are counted as 0.5 because they attend half-time, utilization is now the ADE as a percentage of the planning capacity defined by board staff.

A table of historical enrolments, capacities, etc. with some notes follows. The data is not 100% complete, but it should provide some idea of the enrolment patterns. One can see how the enrolment grew with the phase-in of EFI starting in 1991, as fewer and fewer students from West Carleton were left in the EFI program at Stephen Leacock. When Stonecrest opened in 1998, there was some loss of EFI students who were residents in the Torbolton and Fitzroy areas and were now able to access EFI at Stonecrest; this change was phased over several years because of the phased construction of Stonecrest.

 

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