Union donates $100,000 to help keep school pools open

Union donates $100,000 to help keep school pools open. Bruce Davis, David Crombie and John Weatherup are all smiles as CUPE Local 4400 officially handed over a $100,000 donation to the Toronto District School Board to help out with the TDSB's school pool funding shortfall. Staff photo/ERIC HEINO

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has called an emergency meeting to be held next week, shortly after an announcement was made that CUPE Local 4400 would be donating $100,000 to go directly towards purchasing usage permits for seven of the remaining nine school pools at risk of closure.

Details of how much money will go to each individual school are not yet determined, but Carleton Village Sr. PS, Earl Grey Sr. PS, George Harvey, Kensington Community School Jr., Monarch Park, SATEC @ WA Porter CI, and Western Tech are all on the list of school pools that were still being evaluated for closure and would potentially benefit from CUPE's donation. Central Technical School and Winona McMurrich Jr. PS, were left off the donation list.

It is expected that this donation will help for most, if not all, of these pools to be re-opened by the TDSB in their meeting next week.

"It's about building up communities that need it. Some pools are up and running, so it's not going to be an equal distribution," said John Weatherup, president of CUPE Local 4400. "It's an equity issue too, because there are a lot of people that can't go up to a cottage or have a swimming pool in their backyard."

The specific intent of the $100,000 is to provide a fund that groups with specific needs can access. Groups for seniors, Muslim girls classes and physiotherapy are just a few examples.

It has been two years since former Toronto mayor David Crombie was entrusted to come up with a long-term plan to fund pools through the Aquatic Working Group (AWG). TDSB Chair Bruce Davis was happy to hear the AWG and Toronto Lands Corporation would be making a recommendation to the TDSB to re-open all nine schools that were still in limbo.

"This donation of $100,000 really represents about 2,000 hours of permitting for community groups so it will help to essentially put those pools over the edge to keep them open," said Davis.

An extra $100,000 goes a long way to help pools this year, but Weatherup knows it's not a long-term solution for a chronic funding problem he feels the province or the city should step in to fix.

"We have been working on keeping swimming pools open for at least 20 years," said Weatherup. "It's always an issue every time there is a budget crunch."

The official decision on which of the nine pools stay open will be made at the TDSB's meeting at 5050 Yonge St. on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Three additional pools that are currently open but will be eligible to benefit from CUPE 4400's donation include Downsview SS, Queen Alexandria MS and Stephen Leacock CI.