People get angry at my questions sometimes. Like when I asked Peter: Why would the government want to sell it off when we’re already using it?
“That doesn’t mean they can’t,” said Peter. “Why else would they have a “surplus space” review?”
Peter Clutterbuck has a lot experience with the Vaughan Road Academy. He’s the Chair of the Oakwood Vaughan Community Organization, a group that saved the site from being sold off nearly a decade ago. He’s also the axle of the community hub the group created at the site.
Today, Peter says, they’re sounding an early alarm because the provincial government’s review could put the Vaughan Road Academy at risk again. It’s already preventing the group from renewing its lease with the Toronto District School Board for the community hub.
“We have a good partnership with the TDSB, but the Board cannot renew the lease because of the provincial review. So instead, they’re doing a license, a temporary agreement,” Peter says.
I understand Peter’s frustration with the provincial government and my naive-sounding questions. Governmental interference is compromising the future of the community hub, once again. It truly boggles my mind that the provincial government would sell off the property when it’s already full of community programs.
For example, the public school board uses it as a holding site for schools needing a temporary space. Hodgson Middle School is there now while its own property is being renovated. The City is using the pool for its popular swim programs. The Vaughan Road Infant and Toddler Centre operates out of there offering childcare to local families. And the Oakwood Vaughan Community Hub offers a comprehensive program for local seniors called the Oasis for Healthy Living, among other community programs.
That’s a lot of community. So why would the province want to shut all that down?
Well, what we know for sure is that the province is cutting the budget for public schools. They suspended all the TDSB school trustees. Cut 300 teaching positions. And they’re cutting more than 200 administrative staff and eliminating 91 vacant positions. Now they’re conducting a “surplus space” review of schools.
They’re looking for more places to cut. After all, the province put the TDSB under provincial supervision because of “deep (financial) mismanagement and severe deficits.” And the province can make tens of millions by selling the sprawling site of the Vaughan Road Academy.
Yes, the community is using the building, but that just means more expenditures for the province.
So, Peter has a point. If the community doesn’t start preparing to save the site again, it will be easy for the province to just sell it to developers. He wants to see the community mobilize again.
And if even I can see where this is going, it’s time to worry.
