Kanata school bursting at the seams

Just days into the new school year, parents whose children attend John Young Elementary School in Kanata are complaining of severe overcrowding.

The school's main building on Morton Drive in the Glen Cairn neighbourhood has an official capacity of 547, but enrolment this fall has soared to 843.

To deal with the growing student population, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has set up 16 portables.

"The infrastructure right now at John Young just isn't enough for how many kids there are," said parent Carolynn Landry. "There's been a phenomenal amount of new development south of us, and west, and no new school." Landry said her three children, who all attend the school, often complain about their crowded classrooms and dwindling recreation space. "They took out the baseball diamond to make more room for all 16 portables," said Gemma Landry, 9.

Buses running late

The overcrowding is making it difficult for some kids just to get to school. Although the school day is scheduled to begin at 8:45 a.m., on Friday morning busloads of children were still being dropped off minutes before 9:00 a.m. "Even though it's not my daughter's fault that she's late for school every day, she feels responsible for that," said parent Valentina Mestrovic. "She feels she's missing out, and that effects her greatly. She's a kid who likes to follow the rules, [and] those rules are now broken and she doesn't know how to cope with it."

The area needs a new school, Mestrovic said. "The new school needs to be built as soon as possible. We cannot wait anymore."

"We need a new school as soon as possible," Carolynn Landry agreed.

New subdivision

The OCDSB said it's aware of the "accommodations pressures" at John Young, and points to the growing Fernbank subdivision as a major factor. The new community, which is in the school's catchment area, is located between Stittsville and Kanata South. "Presently those students are directed toward us," said John Young principal Robert James. "When we returned in early September we had quite a few more enrolments than we had originally anticipated." Overcrowding isn't a new problem for John Young. An addition was tacked on in 1982, just five years after the school was built, doubling its size. A new school in Fernbank by 2020 has been identified as a top capital priority for the OCDSB, which said it hopes "the Ministry of Education will respond positively to the board's capital needs." In an email to CBC, the ministry said it "looks forward to reviewing OCDSB's submission." The deadline for boards to submit project proposals is Sept. 30.