Students, parents rally to save Putman middle school

Dozens of students and parents formed a human chain on Sunday in front of J.H. Putman Public School to show their support for the middle school, which is slated for closure.

J.H. Putman, caught up in an “accommodation review” that covers 26 schools in the west end, is one of seven schools targeted as the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board tries to ensure school buildings are located where they are needed. An OCDSB staff report recommends closing seven schools and changing programs and grade configurations at many others.

Relying on educational research that says students fare better with fewer transitions, trustees also made a policy decision to eliminate middle schools. It may take a while, but the plan is to enlarge high schools to include grades 7 to 12, or expand elementary schools to include K to 8, squeezing out middle schools and junior highs.

D. Aubrey Moodie Intermediate School and Greenbank Middle School are also facing closure.

But some students say middle school is exactly where they want to be.

“There’s going to be a whole ton of stuff we’re going to miss if J.H. Putman closes,” said Grade 6 student Roland Caters.

The school’s music room and wide variety of clubs are among the things he and other students would lose out on if they were transferred back to Agincourt Public School, which he just left in June.

J.H. Putman also has three school bands, a slam poetry society and a maker space.

If the school closes, the OCDSB says students would be redirected to Agincourt, Woodroffe or Pinecrest elementary schools, depending on where they live and what programs they are enrolled in.

But board staff, in their reply to parent comments, have also said it would be feasible to delay closing it until an addition can be built at Agincourt to house middle school kids.

Caroline Laviolette organized Sunday’s rally partly because of a suggestion that the school board hasn’t heard a loud, consistent message to spare J.H. Putman.

“I want the school board to know that we absolutely have the support to keep the school open,” she said.

Unlike some schools facing closure, enrolment is not the problem. Last year, J.H. Putman was close to its capacity of 340 students in grades 6 to 8.

Laviolette says the school board is proposing to take students from a “successful school” and fill vacant spaces at less successful schools.

The OCDSB will release final recommendations in a report on Friday. Trustees will debate the recommendations in February and hold a final vote in March.