When Andrea Kohut’s son steps into his classroom at Lady Evelyn Alternative School in Old Ottawa East, he enters a non-traditional learning environment where education and routines meet students where they are.
Her son is enrolled in a special needs inclusion class that does not follow the alternative education model but exists within the foundation of the school community.
A day before students went on a two-and-a-half-week break for the holidays, Kohut and other parents received a memo from Stacey Kay, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s (OCDSB) new director of education, saying alternative schools would not include junior kindergarten enrolment come September.
Now, Kohut says she worries about what that could mean for the school’s future viability and whether it will one day need to close.
“There’s been a lot of uncertainty for people just in terms of what this means and where things are going,” she told the Ottawa Lookout. “There’s just been so many changes and so many unknowns, it’s almost hard to keep up with it.”
The decision to stop enrolment is part of the OCDSB’s broader vision to phase out alternative education altogether, a decision the board of trustees voted on last spring. Initially, it was expected that those already enrolled in alternative education could continue, with the entire program set to shut down in about a decade.
Last year, the Ontario government appointed a supervisor, Bob Plamendon, to take over control of the board — at least temporarily — until its finances are in order. The education minister has since said it could be a permanent change.
The elementary review expected to start in September has been axed, with highly controversial boundary changes no longer coming into effect. But the future of alternative schools is much less clear.
Kohut worries about what could happen to children with complex needs like hers if the school eventually had to close altogether. Lady Evelyn, which has a capacity for 364 students, currently has an enrolment of 94. That will decrease further next year, when the older classes graduate and junior kindergarten is eliminated.
Nearby, Elgin Public School is at 141 per cent capacity. It recently added three portables that were initially seen as a temporary solution but could now become permanent.
Moving a specialized program is not as simple as transferring a class list, said Kohut. She noted Lady Evelyn’s physical environment has been carefully shaped over the years to support children with mobility, cognitive, and sensory challenges — something not easily replicated elsewhere.
“From just a structural building perspective, it is a very accessible school,” she said. “The playground was designed with accessibility in mind. The outside structure is accessible; it’s turf and concrete, so it’s really easy, much easier than other playgrounds for kids with physical challenges and visual challenges to navigate.”
Beyond accessibility, Kohut said the school has a diverse student population and hosts barbecues and holiday gift programs.
Bob Gordon has two children attending Lady Evelyn — one in grade six and another in senior kindergarten. His family joined the school years ago after seeking an alternative to traditional programming.
“The whole idea of what the alternative model was based on was that collaborative experience of self-student regulation, plus the students educating each other,” Gordon said. “When the other kids teach it to each other, they learn it better.”
As his oldest prepares to transition to Grade 7 at another alternative site, Gordon says the real question now concerns his youngest child — and whether it makes sense to remain in a program the board is actively winding down.
“With our youngest in the SK, the way everything is looking next year… It’s a consideration of wondering whether we’re keeping her in the alternative program or not,” he said.
Like Kohut, Gordon pointed to Lady Evelyn’s physical infrastructure and PSN program as strengths that risk being overlooked in top-down planning.
“We have a primary special needs class,” he said. “And as I understand it, we’re the only PSN class that’s at capacity on the board. And that speaks to how well received the environment is, and the options are for those students when they get in there.”
He says many families assumed alternative schools would transition into “community schools” offering both French immersion and core programming — an idea discussed during the board’s earlier Elementary Program Review.
Instead, he says, families feel caught in a governance vacuum. With elected trustees removed and a provincial supervisor appointed to run the board, Gordon says parents have limited avenues to influence decisions.
“Honestly, it feels like a bit of a black box,” Kohut echoed earlier — a sentiment Gordon expands on.
“We have no real political representation that can have that direct communication with what is happening,” he said. “How are we supposed to contact our political representatives and have them go and ask what the hell is going on?”
Despite frustrations, Gordon believes there is still a viable path forward — if the board leans into the existing community rather than dismantling it. He pointed to the large amount of development in the area, which will bring more residents and students.
The OCDSB said in December’s memo that it expects to share more information by June, which is too late for parents who are starting the process now to enrol their children in junior kindergarten.
Impact on other alternative schools
At Churchill Alternative School in Westboro, parents are also worried about what will happen to its students when enrollment stops.
Plamandon, who has not given media interviews and rarely speaks publicly, has been in contact with parents, who were told he’s trying to find a viable way to boost enrolment without taking away from Broadview or Hilson schools in the community.
Allison Hanvey has one older child already at Churchill and was planning to send her youngest there for junior kindergarten in September. She now faces the predicament of pulling that child, who’s functioning well, out of the alternative program, or having children in two separate schools with two separate bell times.
Hanvey told the Kitchissippi Times that she thinks the answer to making Churchill a viable option is to bring in French immersion.
“It would start with a new kindergarten cohort, which is a new group, a new age of students. This would also alleviate the pressures other schools are facing,” she said. Nearby Broadview Elementary School is currently 63 students over capacity.
In the meantime, the board says it is “actively working on various district-wide accommodation challenges, including managing overcrowding and establishing boundaries for new schools under construction.”
At Regina Alternative School near Lincoln Fields, area Coun. Theresa Kavanagh is calling on the Ontario government to keep the doors open. In a letter to Plamendon, she called the school community a “gem” and said it could also help address overcrowding at nearby schools.
“The decision to stop kindergarten registrations at this local school is essentially a slow-motion closure, and it runs counter to the province’s stated intention of fostering thriving, local community schools,” wrote Kavanagh.
“I understand that the board is working on addressing the challenge of overcrowding in some schools, and under-enrolment in others, and I firmly believe that Regina Street School could provide a solution to overcrowding in some of the neighbouring schools,” she added.
The two other alternative schools are Riverview in the east end and Summit in Hampton Park.
