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.