The transformation of Northview Secondary School into a busy community hub and health centre is underway and will serve as a model for many other schools in the future.
In a general, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) meeting on Wednesday, March 10, two motions were unanimously passed without discussion. The first gave board support to lease of 30,000 square feet of Northview property along Finch Avenue for use as a community health centre and the second authorized new initiatives to make it easier for other schools across Toronto to lease unused property to government and community-based agencies. The school itself would be left untouched and would benefit from additional programming options at the centre.The plan is to construct a 15,000 square foot building, at no cost to the school board, to house a variety of community health services and businesses. These would be accessible to the general public and could also benefit students by engaging them in cooperative education and volunteer programs."If you look at the urban environment, the only way to sustain both the school board and the city is to do more joint programs and joint initiatives," said local trustee James Pasternak. "By putting a community hub, which provides a wide range of services, we are creating a model that other schools can follow."There are several steps that still need to be taken before construction can begin, but New Heights already has money secured for construction. Once traffic studies in the Finch Avenue West and Bathurst Street and final lease authorization is given by the Toronto Lands Corporation, construction can begin.Helping schools to function as community hubs is part of director of education Chris Spence's Vision of Hope for the TDSB, so Pasternak hopes taking initiative in his ward will set a good example for similar projects expected to start popping up across the city in the future. The second motion passed in the meeting instructed Spence to begin identifying other board properties that are unused and suggesting what sort of partnerships could be developed there."We look at this as sort of ground zero when it comes to setting a template and example for what we call the integrated service model," said Pasternak. "This is really something people will look at as an example of where the city and school board can work together to develop a sustainable city model. This is something my ward has needed for a long time and is long overdue."