Forecourt Park and the schoolyard that isn't one

In January 2027, École élémentaire catholique Au Cœur d'Ottawa will leave 88 Main Street for the Deschâtelets building in Old Ottawa East. That is good news and deserves to be said as such: a 140-year-old heritage building returned to public use, and a French-language school settled for good in a ward where studying in French still means travelling.

One question remains to be answered before the doors open, and it is being decided right now: where will those children play?

What the CECCE is building

The board is fitting out 489 student spaces and 39 childcare spaces in the building — 15 for toddlers and 24 for preschoolers. A gymnasium is being built in collaboration with the City of Ottawa: students will use it during school hours, the public outside them. A City-run community centre will occupy a floor of the existing building.

In December 2025, the CECCE announced $21.2 million for this work — $19.3 million from Ontario and $1.9 million from the Canada-Ontario program — following an initial $5.7 million in 2020. Occupancy is expected in January 2027.

The park is being decided before the school arrives

In front of the building, at 325 Deschâtelets Avenue, the City is designing Forecourt Park. The preliminary concept was posted on Engage Ottawa, and a public engagement session was held on Monday, 22 June 2026, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the Old Town Hall at 61 Main Street.

The City describes a design that fits with its cultural setting, respects its heritage character, and preserves and improves connections to nearby buildings and the surrounding streets. That is an entirely legitimate intention, and it is a fine neighbourhood project.

What the timing adds is a school moving in a few months later, in front of that same park. The City knows this: its own project page describes the Deschâtelets building as the future home of the French Catholic elementary school and the municipal community centre. The park is being decided first and the school arrives afterward. That is the reverse of the order you would want.

A schoolyard cannot be improvised

One clarification first, because it matters: 489 student spaces is a capacity, not an enrolment count on the first day of school. But it is the right order of magnitude to hold in mind — hundreds of children coming outside for recess twice a day, into a public space that was not designed to receive them.

I am not asking for the park to be reserved for the school. It is a public place, and the neighbourhood has as much claim to it as our students do. I am asking that the design account for both uses while it is still open: sightlines that make supervision possible, a defined play area, surfaces and planting that survive that use, and a clear agreement on supervision and liability. All of it costs far less now than once the concrete is poured.

Let me add the obvious caveat myself, because it is a fair one. The shared gymnasium shows that the City and the CECCE already know how to design and manage a space together on this site. But a gym can be booked by the hour, locked, and used by one group at a time; a park has no door and no schedule, and it stays public while the children are outside in it. The same kind of sharing cannot simply be transposed. What the gym proves is more modest, and it is enough: the relationship and the mechanism already exist.

The file is still open

As of this writing, the City has not published a summary of the 22 June session. The only document posted on the project page remains the preliminary concept. So I attribute no conclusion to that evening: I do not know what was said there, and I am not going to invent it.

What I do know is that the plan is not settled. Now is when comments count, not in 2027. If you live in Old Ottawa East, the Glebe or Old Ottawa South, the Engage Ottawa page for Forecourt Park still accepts comments. Say there what you want for this park — including what a school of this size will need.

What a school trustee can do, and what they cannot

I am clear about the limits of the office: a school trustee has no authority over municipal parks. A trustee decides neither the layout, nor the planting, nor the City's budget.

What a trustee can do is make sure the school board is at the table while the plan is being decided rather than after, and carry the question on behalf of families who have neither the time nor the administrative vocabulary to follow a municipal consultation. It is modest work, and it happens now.

And that is where your school support designation comes in. In Ontario it is English public by default. It does not change the amount of your school tax — same bill, same amount. It decides who is allowed to choose the people who sit at the CECCE table. The school board election is on 26 October 2026, and you can check your registration today through the official Register to Vote service.

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Sources: CECCE, "Travaux intérieurs lancés à Au Cœur d'Ottawa" (11 December 2025); City of Ottawa, Engage Ottawa — Forecourt Park Development; Capital Ward bulletin from Councillor Shawn Menard (19 June 2026).