An alert reader took this photo of an interesting new plaque on our school’s wall. The proud traditions of Thomson Athletics are commemorated by this plaque that notes the original identity as Thomson Redmen (1959-2004) and subsequent re-birth as the Thomson Titans (2005-future). Click on the photo for a close-up view.

Five Schools to Close in Scarborough – New school planned for Rougeville; Thomson-Bendale high schools to merge in new building

As published in the Scarborough Mirror, Wednesday June 23, 2010

Schools in the TDSB to close within the next two years as a result of the ARC process include: Brooks Road Public School, Heron Park Junior Public School, Peter Secor Junior Public School, McCowan Road Junior Public School, Pringdale Gardens Junior Public School, Silverthorn Junior Public School, Arlington Middle School and Kent Senior Public School-Alpha II.

After nine months of debate and dissent, Scarborough families will be seeing some of the benefits of closing several schools.  During the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) general meting on Wednesday, June 23, the board finalized the closure of eight schools that were evaluated by Accommodation Review Committees (ARCs). Five of these school are in Scarborough.  To help soften the blow, trustees pledged almost $34 million in facility upgrades to the remaining schools in each Scarborough ARC and authorized the construction of two new schools as part of a five-year capital plan.  While TDSB chair Bruce Davis characterizes Scarborough as a “big winner” in the $397.5-million capital plan, local trustees feel it is just a case of a rapidly expanding area finally getting its due. Continue reading →

Members of Scarborough’s Bendale-Thomson school community are talking about the futures of five different schools

BY MOIRA MACDONALD – As published in the Toronto Sun, April 13, 2010:

Change can move at a glacial pace, which is probably what members of Scarborough’s Bendale-Thomson school community have figured out.

But even slow-moving is better than no moving, and it sounds like this week these folks are a step closer to something good.

More than two years ago people from this group — students, parents, ratepayers, principals, teachers, local politicians and other school staff — came together at one of those hackle-raising things called an “accommodation review committee” (what I often call a school closure process). Continue reading →

The big 50th anniversary celebration of May 2009 is now history, but we would like to leave its mark in some tangible visible form in the old school – or a “new” one, if plans continue in that direction.

The Alumni planning committee envisions a framed glass- or plexiglass-covered wall-mounted display, to complement the 25th anniversary framed autographs, perhaps near them in the upper hall at the top of the school’s front stairway. Continue reading →

A news column in the Toronto Sun, February 5, 2010, sheds light on the challenges faced by TDSB officials and trustees regarding re-development of the Thomson-Bendale property:

As far as worries about what trustees have to “sell” back to closure communities, the problem is the board has no money to build anything. It owes $62 million it borrowed starting five years ago to deal with dire repairs — like caving in walls. The provincial government wants that paid back, or at least a pay-back plan, before it lets the TDSB go out and borrow even more money for these community “reinvestments.”

Case in point, the board approved a plan a year ago — worked out by one central Scarborough school neighbourhood — to consolidate Bendale and Thomson high schools into one, sell some land and use the savings to finance a better, single school. A year later and that community is wondering what’s happening — no kidding. If things went ahead it would be a PR win for the board and government and probably ease the reluctance of other neighbourhoods to talk about closures.

See the full Toronto Sun news column here.