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Ottawa’s public school board should close eight schools, a staff report says.

On the hit list are Rideau High School, Greenbank, J.H. Putman and D. Aubrey Moodie middle schools, plus four elementary schools in Ottawa’s west end: Grant, Century, Leslie Park and Regina Street.

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It’s the beginning of a painful five-year process to ensure school buildings are located where they are needed across the city.

Enrolment is declining at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. There are an estimated 11,500 empty pupil spaces in a school district with 70,000 students. Some schools are half empty, while others in fast-growing areas are crowded, their yards jammed with portables.

The first two of seven “accommodation reviews” began Wednesday with reports on elementary and secondary schools in the west end and high schools in the east end.

The two reports recommend both closures and changes to programs such as making Severn Avenue PS a centre for early French immersion students, and expanding Sir Robert Borden, Merivale and Bell high schools to include Grades 7 to 12.