Saving Green Space Leaves Runnymede PS 5 classes short for September 2014.

Last Wednesday, the TDSB Trustees rejected a plan to generate $45million over three years to pay for necessary capital projects. This Five Year Capital Plan would sell 6 closed schools and severed land from up to 30 schools with large sites (> 12 acres). The failure of the Capital Building Program has a direct impact on Runnymede P.S.

 
Currently, our school enrolment of 1,130 students in a building with a capacity of 866 students places us at 130% capacity and our enrollment grows year-by year. In September 2014 the school is required to implement Full-Day Kindergarten needing 5 additional classrooms which we don’t have!

Boundary changes have been made to divert students to nearby schools. There is insufficient space on the Runnymede P.S. site to accommodate any more portables or an addition. The soil structure prevents any vertical additions. The only possible relief for the overcrowding at Runnymede is to build an addition at Keele St. P.S. (currently JK-6), so that they could retain the Gr. 7 & 8’s in their catchment area who currently come to Runnymede P.S. But, Keele St.’s addition was on the revised Capital Plan, which was voted out of existence. The project is now on indefinite hold until a new, funded Capital Plan is developed by the TDSB and approved by the Ministry of Education. In the meantime – 5 classes of Runnymede PS students will be without classrooms in September 2014.

If you are interested in participating in a discussion about the over-capacity at the school, and the imminent inability to accommodate all the children in the catchment area, please come to the School Council meeting on Thursday Nov. 29 2012 at 7pm in the Runnymede PS school library.

Please lend your voice and efforts to help us avert this situation!       

Aerial Photos for BWV

On April 3rd 1942, a series of aerial photographs were taken of the area around and including BWV. They are very cool to compare with the area as we currently know it, and I had fun having a quick spot-the-difference. Firstly, Runnymede PS is much smaller as the white extension hadn't bee built and the Portapaks are not there. I think that the church on the N. side of Annette St. at its junction with Willard Ave. is smaller too. The biggest difference is the lack of parked cars - where the streets are now packed with cars nose to tail, in 1942 they seem like they were still a rarity.

The aerial photographs themselves are posted on the City of Toronto Archives site. You can zoom in to backyard level. what a great way to introduce children to maps.

No Permitting of Runnymede School due to a shortage of coal!

The Toronto World March 12th 1920

This evening a special meeting of the Toronto District School Board is voting to increase permitting fees for community organisations wishing to use school facilities out of school hours by about 40%.
The permitting issue is very complicated because currently the TDSB makes a loss when they permit out school facilities. Money which could be used for other purposes e.g. textbooks is financially subsidizing users of school facilities, and placing a workload burden on the care-taking staff. In some cases, for example where non-profit organisations are providing extra-curricular activities which serve the children of the school's catchment area, this would seem to be at least consistent with the mission of the school board. In many cases though, the TDSB is financially subsidising companies who are making additional profit by virtue of renting space at below market values.

It clearly makes sense to increase permitting fees so that at least permit holders are not a drain on the school board.  There does seem to been a need for making a distinction between non-profit community users (who the TDSB probably should not be using as a source of income) and profit-making users who should be paying their way and then some!

As this piece from The Toronto world shows, tough choices have always had to be made about community users of school buildings. When the ratepayers of Ward 7 asked to use the building for a meeting they could not have it heated as there was no coal! More contemporary members of the Ward 7 Education Council will know, the heating goes off in Runnymede Public School in the evening, and by 9pm it can be really, really chilly in the library. Some things never change :-)