Rideau High School currently has about 500 students even though it has a capacity to accommodate about 1,000. (CBC)Staff of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have recommended closing Rideau High School next year, citing dwindling enrolment.

Trustees are scheduled to discuss a staff report that makes the recommendation at a meeting on Thursday, which follows 18 months spent studying Rideau, along with two other east-end schools — Gloucester High School and Colonel By Secondary School. All three have low enrolment that has been blamed on an aging population in the east end.

Under the staff plan, former Rideau students would be bused to Gloucester High School, boosting the combined enrolment to about 1,300. A public meeting about the plan will be held in November and a final decision is expected in December.

East end school board trustee David Moen said he's not surprised by the recommendation. With the lowest enrolment in the board, Rideau has difficulty offering a variety of programs, said Moen, the trustee for Zone 12 (Innes/Beacon Hill-Cyrville).

Currently, there are only 500 students at the school, which has a capacity of 1,000.

"In the past, we've introduced French immersion a number of trades and technologies based courses," Moen said. "The result wasn't a significant increase in enrolment."

Students upset

Trustee David Moen said introducing French immersion and trades courses didn't boost enrolment at Rideau High. (CBC)Rideau students who heard the news announced over the schools PA system Monday were disappointed.

Grade 10 student Kyle Green said he was "upset, shocked [and] depressed" and plans to start a petition to keep the school open.

Sean Ghazarian, who is also in Grade 11, said he doesn't want to switch schools because he lives down the street.

"It's going to affect me a lot," he added.

Grade 9 student Kaitlin Abbott was more optimistic about the move.

"I think it would be good to meet more people," she said. "'Cause we have a lot of room in our school."

Chris Ellis, past chair of the parents' council at Rideau High, said he thinks the closure is an "easy solution to a difficult problem" — their failure to address why parents are sending their kids to other schools instead of Rideau.

He said that while the school's applied stream is one of the best among Ottawa's public schools, the school board hasn't made the necessary investments to boost academic excellence at the school.

The school board announced in April that it was considering closing Rideau, Colonel By or Gloucester. Each public meeting on the proposal drew nearly 400 people.