The Ottawa-Carleton District School board is facing its fifth straight deficit and could cut educational assistants. At the same time, it’s making big changes that include phasing out 39 specialized classes.
Michelle Bertram used to spend two hours a day sitting in her car in the parking lot of her son’s Ottawa school, on standby in case her boy had one of his regular severe seizures in class and stopped breathing.
Eventually, she and nurses from the children’s hospital worked to train teachers and educational assistants to give rescue medication through his nose. These days, Bertram can be on call from home instead.
But that doesn’t mean 10-year-old Kyle has a normal school life.
He attends school just three-and-a-half hours a day, because the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board can only provide an educational assistant for that long. His mom says he spends those hours at the back of a regular …