The school is named after Béatrice Desloges, an early twentieth century Franco-Ontarian teacher in Ottawa who, with her sister Diane, successfully opposed Regulation 17, which aimed at rendering illegal all French language teaching in the province of Ontario. The school opened its doors in 1997, in order to give more space to the overcrowded Garneau high school in Orléans, Ontario. The student population grew rapidly when the 7th and 8th grade groups were incorporated to the 9-12 group in 2001, and since then, the school has been undergoing expansion in order to accommodate the growing number of students. In 2006, it was announced that an entirely new three-story section would be built where the previous school extension stood, and would be entirely dedicated to the 7th and 8th graders, thus separating them from older high school students. In addition to this, it was announced that a modern amphitheatre would be built inside, meaning that the previous theatre could be removed. This allowed the expansion of the cafeteria, which had been largely criticized for failing to accommodate the number of students over the years, and also allowed the addition of a new atrium, a gymnasium, and an exercise room. The gym was named after Olympian Lise Meloche. Although most of the construction was finished by the end of August 2007, the amphitheatre would not be opened until the beginning of spring 2008, costing in total a near twelve million dollars. On March 2, 2007, the school was awarded the Prix jeunesse by the organization Communications et société for World Social Communications Day, for its unifying religious and artistic interpretation in "Le chemin de croix du XXIe siècle".
Programs offered
PSA
Béatrice-Desloges offers a Specialized Arts Program for students which starts from grade 7. Once a student officially enrolls into PSA by grade 9, he or she has to choose a specific domain of specialization: either Music, Visual Arts, or Drama. Within the Drama specialization, a partnership with the of Montreal is offered for specific modules.
OptiMax
The school also offers a program for gifted students named "OptiMax". To be admitted to the program the student must demonstrate high academic capabilities, such as a 79% overall average in the following subjects: French, mathematics, sciences, social studies, as well as a minimum grade of 75% in each of those subjects. There are categories within the program pertaining to specific age groups. Grades 7 and 8 are in the Exploration program and Grades 9 and 10 in the Planification program.
