The Ottawa Citizen; Ottawa, Ont.; Jul 16, 1986; Cathy Campbell and Jacquie Miller Citizen staff writers

Despite last-minute wavering by some trustees, the Ottawa Board of Education voted Tuesday to close Fisher Park High School in June 1987.

After four hours of debate in a steamy board room, trustees rejected a proposal by Trustee Marian Lothian to keep Fisher Park open. The vote was 9-7, with one abstention.

An attempt to close Laurentian High School instead was defeated 7-7, with three abstentions. A tie vote always means the motion is defeated.

Trustees also confirmed their decision to close Sir John A. Macdonald High School on Draper Avenue in June 1987, but deferred until 1988 a decision on the closure of the High School of Commerce on Rochester Street.

Trustees have debated and flip-flopped on the issue of school closures and declining enrolment for several years.

At many points in the evening, it appeared trustees would reverse their decision to close Fisher Park, on Holland Avenue at the Queensway, as they scurried around the board room, whispering to one another and passing notes before each vote.

In the end, trustees Frank Dalton, Harriet Lang, Marian Lothian, John Smart, Ted Best, Robert Beatty and Robert Belanger voted to keep Fisher Park open.

Trustees Jane Dobell, Jacques Beauchamp, Dalton McGuinty, Kathy Yach, Alex Cullen, Marjorie Loughrey, Russ Jackson, Brian McGarry and Bill Gowling voted to close the school.

Trustee Claudette Boyer abstained from the vote.

"This shouldn't be decided on the basis of lobbying," said Cullen, as his fellow trustees, who totally disregarded what he was saying, huddled with their heads together.

"The bottom line is very clear," said Lothian, in urging trustees to reconsider their decision.

"Fisher Park has nearly double the enrolment of Laurentian...It makes sense to close the school with the lowest enrolment."

Trustee John Smart, who opposes closing any schools, argued that Fisher Park and Laurentian should both stay open.

"I doubt we'll get any awards from the ministry of education for how we've handled this over the last couple of years," Smart said.

Beauchamp, who represents Catholic ratepayers on the OBE, said he's unhappy with the board's closure decisions but he voted to support them because he feared the board would end up closing nothing at all.

"Right now, I'm voting as a responsible taxpayer," he said. "I'm going to do my best to reduce the costs of this board."

Dalton, who also represents Catholic ratepayers on the board, took a different tact.

He urged trustees to consider the interests of the separate school board, which has said it doesn't want Fisher Park High School.

About 100 parents and students crowded into the board room and overflowed into an adjoining meeting room where they cheered and jeered the debate, which was broadcast over a public address system.

Laurentian students, crowded outside the meeting with their red, white and blue school caps, happily proclaimed victory after the vote to close their Baseline Road school went down to defeat.

"It's great," said Jordan Pettigrew, who is going into Grade 10. "It's really a class school. We're so tight-knit and like a family."

Fisher Park parents and students, meanwhile, moped and vowed to continue the fight, although they're not sure how.

"I'm too upset to speak," said Elda Allen, chairman of the school's parents' association. "I'm afraid of what I might say."

Fisher Park parents lost their fight against the school's closure in a case they brought before the Ontario Supreme Court in April.

The court ruled that the OBE followed proper procedure in deciding to close the school. Parents, students and trustees said the high-school closure process was tearing the city apart, pitting community against community.

"There's going to be animosity, I think, between Fisher students and Laurentian students," says 17-year-old Laurentian student John Molapo.

Many were critical of the long, painful school-closure process, which started in the late '70s when trustees discovered the number of high school students was shrinking.

The board decided in principle that some schools would have to close but the problem has been in deciding which ones.

In the past year, it has also named Hillcrest and Canterbury high schools for possible closure and then backed down after community protests.

"I think it's been described by some as a circus," said Barbara Lajeunesse, who has been fighting for six years against the closure of Sir John A. Macdonald High School.

"They've flubbed and they've flip-flopped and tripped up and most of all, they've worried about their own political hides."

Lajeunesse said she had little hope the board would change its mind about closing Sir John A., but she came to the meeting just in case.

The board never gave real thought to sharing schools with the separate board or to combining low-enrolment schools with other uses, she said.

For instance, a school with empty space could rent it to community projects such as a senior citizen centre or day-care centre, she said. The Ottawa Separate School Board is also expected to be upset about the OBE's closure decisions.

Catholic trustees have stated the expanding board doesn't want Fisher Park High School or Sir John A. Macdonald.

OSSB Trustee Pat Bowie said the board will fight any plan to shift those schools into the separate system.

Credit: CITIZEN