WEST TORONTO ARC

1. WEST TORONTO ARC PUBLIC MEETING #4 November 5, 2009

2. TDSB CHALLENGES THAT LED TO THIS ARC • The board has about one million square feet of surplus space which impacts negatively on funding it may receive from the province • Enrolment is declining and there is no expectation that previous high enrolments will return. In the TDSB there has been a drop of almost 26,000 fewer elementary school students and about 10,000 fewer secondary school students since 2001 • The Board’s vision for secondary schools has students attending composite secondary schools of about 1200 students • Schools that are half empty are consuming financial resources, with resources being spent on buildings rather than programs

3. ARC REPORT FORMAT • Context (overview of the ARC process) • ARC Membership • Key Findings • Recommendations • Appendices (all of the input provided and received)

4. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT Areas of the key findings: • Enrolment data • Program challenges for students in the regular secondary school program • Program impact on students enrolled in Special Education programs • Support in the community for Special Education students and their needs for an accessible, barrier-free building • The school building • Support for, and interest in, adult education programs

5. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT1. ENROLMENT • Decline in the number of adolescents living in the catchment area • Few students from the catchment area attend WTC • Low enrolments also in Special Education programs • No expectation that decline will be reversed • Very little interest in grade 9 by grade 8 students in the last two school years

6. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT 2. PROGRAM IMPACTSStudents in the regular program • Limited course offerings • Many combined classes • Teachers have few opportunities to teach their specialist subjects • Fewer clubs, sports teams, extra- and co-curricular opportunities • Specialty programs have been cancelled or not offered • Impossible to offer a wide range of programs leading to all destinations

7. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT 3. PROGRAM IMPACTSStudents enrolled in Special Education programs • Fewer options for students for whom full or partial integration is possible, especially in the areas of essential level courses and open courses as well as arts, physical education and family studies/parenting courses • Impossible to offer a wide range of programs leading to all destinations

8. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT 4. Support for Spec Ed students and their needs • High level of support in the community for Special Education students and their needs for an accessible, barrier-free building • Parents of these students want opportunities for the students to interact with students enrolled in a regular secondary school program and to be integrated where possible into that program

9. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT5. The School Building • There is a strong desire in the community to keep the school building as a TDSB property. The building is relatively new and is in very good physical condition. It is accessible and barrier-free and has a regulation-sized sports field.

10. KEY FINDINGS DRAFT6. Adult Education • Many stakeholders have expressed their frustration with the school’s inability to attract large numbers of adolescent learners but understand the difficulties in developing magnet programs that might reverse the enrolment trends in this area of the city. • If the school cannot be maintained as a secondary school, there is considerable support for, and interest in, using the facility for a variety of adult education programs.

11. DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS • West Toronto C. I. be closed, effective August 31, 2010. • The students in the regular secondary school program attending WTC in the 2009/2010 school year be given the choice, for September 2010, of attending any secondary school in the TDSB for which they are qualified without having to undergo the optional attendance procedures for that school; the only exception to this provision would be a school that is determined to be closed for optional attendance as of September 2010.

12. DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS • (a) Students attending Special Education programs in WTC in the 2009/2010 school year be given the choice of either a new placement for September 2010 determined in accordance with the current central Special Education procedures or remaining in the WTC building for one additional school year (2010/2011) if no alternate suitable facilities are secured that can welcome these students or until such suitable facilities are secured. (b) Board staff investigate the possibility of moving the following 2009/2010 Special Education programs and their students from WTC to one alternate location that can accommodate all of the programs and their students: DD, PD and MID

13. DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS • Although this is not strictly part of the mandate of the ARC, the ARC would like to recommend that the WTC building remain as property of the TDSB, to be used for educational and community purposes. • Serious consideration be given to placing a wide variety of adult education programs, including but not limited to credit, general interest, adult ESL and skills training programs, at the school to serve the adult learners in the area. • The adult ESL programs currently at WTC and the Griffin Centre program be relocated to suitable locations.