Opening of new Catholic elementary school in Barrhaven South delayed by four months

FILE - AN empty teacher's desk is pictured at the front of a empty classroom at Mcgee Secondary school in Vancouver on Sept. 5, 2014. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

The new Catholic elementary school in Barrhaven South will not open in September 2023 as scheduled, forcing the school board to find spaces for hundreds of students next fall.

The new Barrhaven South elementary school on Main Halyard Lane was scheduled to open in September 2023, with spaces for 507 Junior Kindergarten to Grade 6 students. A report for the Ottawa Catholic School Board says that opening date is "no longer possible", and construction delays mean it will not be ready until January 2024.

"We have been informed that delays in the delivery of steel joists into the spring of next year will serve to delay completion of the new school to December 2023," staff said in a report for Tuesday's board meeting.

The new school will accommodate students who currently attend St. Benedict Elementary School and St. Cecilia Elementary School.

Staff say "complicating matters further" in planning for the four-month delay in the opening of the new school is the significant growth in Barrhaven, causing enrolment to spike by 217 students at St. Benedict this year. Status quo enrolment at the school for next September would be approximately 1,050 students, which would require five additional portables, according to the report.

To accommodate students of the new school and account for enrolment pressures at St. Benedict school, the board has decided to form the new Barrhaven South elementary school in September with a full complement of staff and students in Kindergarten to Grade 5.  The Kindergarten and Grade 4-5 students will go to St. Benedict school under the "Barrhaven South elementary school" banner, while Grade 1 to 3 students will go to St. Cecilia with "Barrhaven South elementary school" classes for the first four months of the year.

All students will move to the new Barrhaven South elementary school in January 2024.

The board has decided to keep Grade 6 students enrolled at St. Benedict or St. Cecilia schools for the 2023-24 school year, instead of opening the Barrhaven South elementary school with a Grade 6 class. Parents had raised concerns about students changing schools twice in the 2023-24 school year, before going to Grade 7 at St. Joseph High School the following year.

"Staff recognize that a mid-year new school opening is a unique and challenging circumstance for students and families," the report said.

"In particular, however, we understand that it will be more disruptive to those Grade 6 students who will transition to a high school the following year.  These students would spend only six months at the new school."

The board says there will be "some student movement and disruption will be required to take place" to move students into classes associated with the new Barrhaven South elementary school.

Information on the formation of the new school, classroom teachers, administrators, and special education resources will be assigned in the spring.