Board needs ministry approval before Thomson-Bendale changes can begin
BY DANIELLE MILLEY – As published in the Scarborough Mirror, January 27, 2010:
It’s been a year since the Toronto District School Board decided to consolidate David and Mary Thomson CI and Bendale BTI, but money is keeping the project from moving forward.
Trustee Scott Harrison sent out a letter last week to update the community on the status of the Bendale/Thomson/Edgewood Public School/Donwood Park Public School ARC (Accommodation Review Committee) and the work that has taken place since the board’s approval of the ARC recommendations last February.
The committee had recommended, among other things, that Donwood be converted from a JK-Grade 6 to a JK-Grade 8, the BTI (business and technical institute) model be disbanded at Bendale, and a secondary school with programming appropriate for all destinations be established. The revamped elementary and high school would be housed in existing buildings that would undergo extensive renovations to accommodate the change.
Unfortunately because of a “funding challenge” the board has been unable to move forward with design work and other planning details.
“We’re still working at the financial piece. We need to get approval from the ministry to move forward,” Harrison said in an interview.
Because the school board is dealing with a debt of about $60 million, it needs to get approval from the province before it could incur any additional debt to finance the retrofits.
“We’ve been working with the ministry on the plans to move forward with Bendale-Thomson, but it’s been taking a lot longer than we thought,” he said.
The TDSB has prepared a plan detailing how it intends to clear its deficit and a meeting should take place in the next week or so to share that plan with the ministry.
Until that time, further work such as design details can not be done on the project, and this includes determining for sure which of the secondary sites will be redeveloped and house the new school (though Bendale has been talked about as the preferred site).
Once this decision has been made, the surplus part of the property can be sold to help finance the project.
Harrison said he’s had just a few inquiries about the progress of the project, but he knows how important it is to continue the work on this project.
“The reality is we need to get moving on this so we can have the school built and ready for students,” he said. “The board decided to do it and the longer we decide not to do it, it’s a disservice to the students of today and tomorrow.”
Dianne Wilson-Sweet is a parent of a Grade 12 student at Thomson and she was on the ARC committee. She said the community is being kept up-to-date on what’s happening and she’s not surprised things are moving a little slower than everyone hoped.
“From the perspective of the community waiting to see it happen, everyone is still gung-ho,” she said “It would be nicer to see it go faster.”
The ARC committee put a lot of hard work into its report so they wouldn’t want the board to rush the planning or construction, Wilson-Sweet said.
Harrison said the timeline has always been that the school would be completed sometime between 2012 and 2014. With an estimate of one year for design work and one year for construction the project is still on schedule despite the delay.
5 comments ↓
The plan was to sell off the very high valued lands, was it not. And they are complaining about funding problems? Did TDSB have other plans for this cash grab?
well said Tom, IT IS A CA$H GRAB. TOM, WHEN I WENT TO THOMSON, WE NEVER HEARD OR KNEW THE TERM LOCKDOWN. THE THREAT OF A GOOD STRAPPING BY THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL WAS ENOUGH TO MAKE ONE THINK TWICE ABOUT MAKING TROUBLE. NO ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY EITHER TO MAKE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS LIVES EASY EITHER. EACH “PROBLEM” STUDENT WAS DEALT WITH ON THE MERITS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CASE. I WEEP FOR THE FUTURE OF THE STUDENT IN THE TDSB, WE HAVE TAKEN A GIANT STEP BACKWARDS AND FAILED THESE CHILDREN ONCE AGAIN. WHAT KIND OF ADULTS WILL WE BE TURNING OUT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION????
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Will the money be just wasted like every school board does and with the funding issues will it help.
This city has fewer historical sites left and another one is gone due to corporate costs.
As a descendant of the Thomson family, I find is disheartening to come to the realization of what financial hole has been dug by mismanagement of my ancestors donation. I sure hope as mentioned above, that the Historic significance of that area is not further eroded and mismanaged. Aside from the fact that I am from the Thomson family, I would hate to see this area deteriorate further. Its not every day that people can trace back the roots of the first cleared farm land in Ontario not to mention Scarborough.
This is terrible. Tim, I agree with you. I am also a direct descendant of the Thomson family and am disgusted at the flagrant attempt to cash in on our ansestors very generous donation. I lived on St Andrews Rd. for the first 7 years of my life and was baptized in St. Andrews Presbyterian church. My Great Grandmother Isabell Davidson lived in the stone house at the corner of Brimley and St Andrews. It is so sad to see such a large part of our heritage being cashed in on by greedy politicians.
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