Catholic school board plans to divide the library at St. Cecilia's Catholic School in two to accommodate new classrooms has left parents at a loss for how to provide the same quality programming in half the space.
"The current construction budget allows for nothing but a wall," said Marisa Cicero, a parent member of the St. Cecilia Catholic School Advisory Council (CSAC). "There's nothing that allows our new, smaller space to transform into the dynamic place it needs to be; a space where our skilled teachers and librarians work together to teach; a place that houses a picture book collection in both English and French; a place where our children learn." The renovations, which the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) have scheduled to take place over the March Break, will see both the school's library and staff room divided up to provide more classroom space for St. Cecilia's "bursting at the seams" student population. Originally built nearly 100 years ago in 1914 - with additions in 1918, 1954 and 1964 - St. Cecilia's has outgrown its site, with no room left to put in portables. In the last two years, the school has seen its population grow by 20 per cent - to 582 students today from 489 in 2009 - due in large part to the popularity of its early French immersion program. While Cicero said she and other St. Cecilia parents - more than 20 of whom came out to Thursday's meeting of the board, and another 228 who have signed a petition - understand why the renovations need to take place, they would like to see the board kick in some money to help redesign the new, reduced library space. "We'd like to thank board members for providing the funding to build our wall, as it allows us to help manage our over-enrollment, but now we need to ask you to build our library," Cicero said, noting that the CSAC's wish list includes funding for flexible, modular furniture, bookshelves, WiFi internet access, a ceiling-mounted projector, and laptop and/or tablet computers. "Without this funding," she added, "our library will become a storage room for books, and much of the basic, fundamental activities inherent to a well-functioning library space will be lost...You are building a wall. Please commit to building a library."When questioned by trustees about why such funding is not currently available to St. Cecilia's, Angelo Sangiorgio, associate director of the TCDSB's Planning and Facilities department, said funding for furniture and equipment is not included in construction budgets. "From a construction perspective, there's money in the budget to make the physical changes, but I think many of the items that the community asked for relates to new furniture and equipment and we don't typically include that," he said. "It's not allowed to be included in the construction budget, so we need to look at other budgets to fund those additional requirements."Calling the St. Cecilia community an "awesome" one, Toronto Trustee Barbara Poplawski moved receipt of Cicero's deputation, with a further request that staff investigate other funding sources to accommodate parents' request and report back to the board. That motion was carried unanimously.