The TDSB is ahead of other boards in building a new kind of school for dense urban environments.
With more Toronto families living in towering condos, the Toronto District School Board is planning to build schools to serve them. The board is taking the province up on its call for “podium” schools, which are integrated into a development project and situated at the base, or podium, of a residential building, for example.
According to the Ford government, other “innovative” ways to build schools would include having schools co-located with child-care centres, municipal buildings and commercial developments. For the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), a “podium” school is on its list of submissions for the latest round of capital priorities, according to Ryan Glenn, CEO of the Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the board.
Sue Winton, a professor with York University’s education faculty, said she thinks there are things school boards and the province should pay attention to when locating schools within buildings that aren’t publicly owned. This includes who makes the decisions about how and when the building is used, and under what terms.
“So how is that space made available to the community after school?” Winton said, adding that she would encourage schools to be accessible to community groups at affordable rates.
Winton said another question is who is responsible for maintenance if a school is located within a private residential building, for example.
“Who’s in charge? Who’s making the decisions, on whose timeline? Are those contractors that are coming into the space — have they met the sort of safety requirements that anybody working in a school would have to follow?” she said.
“So it’s not to say it could never work, but just (to) suggest that these are very practical differences,” Winton said. “If it’s a business, they have a profit goal … but a public organization has different priorities. Their priorities need to be accessibility, inclusion.”