News Releases

TDSB responds to Mayor David Miller's Community Safety Plan

Toronto, ON, April 20, 2004 — The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is helping to make Toronto Mayor David Miller's Community Safety Plan a reality by making five of its schools available for the initiative beginning this summer. These schools will bring government and social agencies closer to the community in satellite centres so that residents have easier access to their services.

In a one-year pilot project beginning July 1, 2004, five schools throughout the city will be used by community groups to deliver programs and activities at no cost to them. The TDSB will bear the costs for the use of the facilities, including maintenance, security, staffing and insurance, at an estimated annual cost of between $1.5M and $2.8M, depending upon the extent of their use.

"We are opening our schools in direct response to Toronto Mayor David Miller's call for a Community Safety Plan," said TDSB Chair Sheila Ward. "The TDSB fully supports the Mayor's vision and we believe that making use of our facilities helps bring that vision close to the public and helps instill a stronger sense of community."

"A strong community is a more self-sufficient and safer community," she said.

The TDSB's plan grew out of consultations with Mayor David Miller who is supportive of the Board's contribution to a safer and more vibrant city.

"Schools can be more than buildings for education - they can serve as focal points of a community " said TDSB Director of Education David Reid. "With more than 560 sites in every corner of this city, we are ideally situated to serve as hubs for community interaction and delivery points for city and government services."

The TDSB's Community Use of Schools Task force, chaired by Trustee Michael Coteau, will recommend to the Board the structures to be put in place in each community to determine how the schools will be used and how community groups can access them. Local committees, attached to the Task Force, will ensure that each community's voice will be the deciding voice in saying how its facility will best serve our young people. The Task Force will cooperate with provincial and city governments, as well as community and social groups and agencies, and will report to the Board in two months' time.

Attending the news conference outlining the TDSB's contribution to Mayor David Miller's Community Safety Plan on Tuesday, April 20, 2004, at Gateway Public School were Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, Chair of the Mayor's Community Safety Plan, City of Toronto Mayor David Miller, TDSB Chair Sheila Ward, and TDSB Director of Education David Reid.

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Chair's Remarks.