Students at St. Matthew High School could see six portables replaced with an addition to the building as early as Sept. 2010 while plans are also in place to alleviate overcrowding at Lester B. Pearson Catholic High School.

Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) trustees passed a motion on June 23 directing staff to fast-track infrastructure projects for both St. Matthew and Lester B. Pearson high schools. The decision comes after the province gave the board $5.5 million under the new Energy Efficient Funding Approvals to upgrade accommodations at both east-end high schools.

Students and parents have been struggling with overcrowding for two decades now. St. Matthew currently has 22 portable classrooms on-site while Lester B. Pearson has 15. Both school councils have repeatedly asked for additions to their respective schools to improve the learning environment for students, but funding for construction was denied because enrolment at the schools was slowly declining.

“The biggest challenge in the past was getting approval,” said Orléans/Cumberland OCSB trustee Stephen Blais, explaining projections put St. Matt’s under capacity by the 2013/2014 school year if a 10-classroom addition were built.

The six-room addition that has since been approved achieves the board’s goal to eliminate the “overuse” of portables and also alleviates the Ministry of Education’s concern about underutilized school facilities, Blais continued.

He indicated discussions between the board, parents and ministry left everyone in agreement that something had to be done, and in the end they found a common solution.

While the addition to St. Matthew won’t mean all portable classrooms will be removed from the site, Blais said there should be no individual portables remaining by 2010.

As for the pack, already-approved changes, like window replacement, are still on the books to improve air flow and keep the rooms warm in winter, the trustee noted.

Lester B. Pearson, meanwhile, will see a combination of a permanent addition and a relocatable structure, according to board documents, but what that means for the Ogilvie Road school is not yet clear.

Beacon Hill-Cyrville/Innes OCSB trustee Katalin Sheskay said there’s only conceptual approval at this time. Approval for appointing the architects was just made last week, she noted, and until the architects get back to the board, trustees won’t know what the solution for Lester B. Pearson will look like or how it will fit into the present plan.

“We have to depend on their evaluation” and city permits, Sheskay said, adding board staff will work throughout the summer to have plans brought before trustees in September.

Excited to see the project come to fruition, Sheskay indicated she’s pleased with the hard work of board staff. Even when it seemed there was no hope, she explained, staff never gave up and continued working behind the scenes.

Blais, meanwhile, gives credit to the province for finding the money to solve “this long-time problem,” noting the more students who can learn inside the building itself, the better the school will function.

He also commends the “tremendous” efforts made by the parent community, saying the project wouldn’t have happened without their “tireless efforts.”