Davisville one of 30 schools to be rebuilt
Province announces $498M fund for renovations and additions across Ontario
Plagued by years of leaky ceilings and crammed classrooms, Toronto’s Davisville Junior Public School will get a $14.7 million rebuild that the neighbourhood hopes will become part of a larger community hub to be used by everyone from babies to seniors, all under the same sprawling new roof.
Davisville is one of 30 schools across Ontario to receive funds for complete rebuilds Monday under a $498 million provincial capital funding announcement. Some 26 more schools landed money for additions and renovations, and the money will also create 122 new child care rooms with 1,235 new licensed spaces in schools.
“The funding will allow Davisville to be totally rebuilt into a modern state-of-the-art school, with enough space for up to 728 students (up from its current 525) so students won’t be so squashed,” said Education Minister Liz Sandals, who made the announcement with local St. Paul’s MPP Eric Hoskins.
For Davisville principal Shona Farrelly, it will mean today’s classes of 20-plus students no longer will have to be squeezed “really, really tightly” into 16 classrooms originally built for small clusters of deaf students in the 50-year-old building near Yonge St. and Davisville Ave.
Trustee Shelley Laskin said she was “over the moon” about the funding for Davisville, “which is the secondworst school in the board as far as being prohibitive to repair.”
“There’s a real misconception that we’re a rich north Toronto school,” Farrelly said, “but we’re not.”
While some have complained that north Toronto lacks the economic need to make it a top priority for a new school, Farrelly said Davisville actually has a number of students in economic need.
For City Councillor Josh Matlow and a group of local residents dreaming of a “Midtown Community Hub” on Davisville’s 3.8-acre site, the funding is a step towards building one of the multi-purpose new hubs the Ontario government has recently said it wants to create.
“Look, we don’t have a community centre in Ward 22 but we have thousands of people moving into the community (including condo towers at Yonge and Eglinton) and the most active storks in the city, so I’m delighted the province has ensured a new facility for Davisville students, which we hope will help bring our Midtown Community Hub to fruition,” Matlow said.