A new report by Ontario's budget watchdog reveals that nearly half of Ottawa's schools are either overcrowded or operating at significantly less than capacity. This highlights the challenges faced by urban planners and school boards in balancing public needs with fluctuating populations.
Around half of Ottawa's schools are either overcrowded or well under-capacity, according to the latest report from Ontario's budget watchdog. Connaught Public School on Gladstone Avenue in Ottawa is pictured here. A new report investigates the capacity and building condition of Ontario schools. On Tuesday, the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO) released its report on the province's school boards.
It investigated school capacity and school condition, or how many students are attending each school and whether the buildings are in a state of good repair.The report showed that 35.4 per cent of schools in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) — the largest school board in Ottawa — were operating at more than 100 per cent capacity. That makes it the fifth-ranked school board in terms of overcapacity, out of the ten largest boards in the province. But the report also showed that 12.9 per cent of OCDSB schools are 'underutilized,' or operating at less than 60 per cent capacity. That gives OCDSB the fourth-most underutilized schools, out of the ten largest boards. Perfectly balancing public need for schools with a fluctuating population presents a unique challenge for urban planners and school boards across the country, experts told CBC.The FAO calculated the utilization rates of schools in Ontario school boards and highlighted the 10 largest school boards' rates in this chart. (Financial Accountability Office of Ontario)Two factors in particular can can lead to stuffed or empty schools, according to Gus Riveros, a Western University professor who researches the effects of urban development on schools. 'A closure of a school sort of signals the decline of a community, and that's problematic,' Riveros say
EDUCATION SCHOOL CAPACITY OVERCROWDING UNDERUTILIZATION ONTARIO
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