Students battle to save ‘newcomer high’ school
Some think that Greenwood was targeted from the start
Students at Toronto’s “newcomer high” are scrambling to file a human rights complaint as the board gets set for a final vote on whether to close down and move their one-of-a-kind school into nearby Danforth Tech.
The fate of Greenwood Secondary — which nurtures and educates newly arrived refugees and immigrants — will be decided by trustees at a meeting Wednesday night, and it is unclear how a human rights complaint could affect the board’s plans.
Greenwood was discussed at a committee meeting last week, but the two students spearheading the fight to keep it open say they could not attend because of Ramadan. They also say the board did not provide them with appropriate translators during a number of area review committee meetings, and that unlike students at other schools, their parents were not able to advocate for them because of language barriers and long working hours.
“We know that the last chance is with us, with a human rights case,” said Tolin Abuaziza, who said she and student council president Zahra Afshar plan to file as soon as their exams are over.
“This is the only school for newcomers and with help for newcomers. We are all hoping the same thing. We don’t want to move,” Abuaziza added. “Students now feel like nothing will happen; they have just kind of given up. They tried, but no one heard them.”
Board chair Robin Pilkey said interpreters were present at the meetings, and noted more than 90 people were involved in the area review process. While she acknowledged that students are “disappointed” with the recommendation, “we are not closing their school . . . there are lots of examples of schools-within-schools in the TDSB.
“To me, what’s more important is the teacher and classroom experience,” not the location.
Pilkey said she is unsure what impact a human rights complaint would have on the process.
Meetings to decide the fate of a cluster of schools in the East YorkDanforth Ave. area of Toronto began last fall, with a decision by the committee to uproot the students at Greenwood, even though their school, which also houses an alternative school, is at almost 100-per-cent capacity.
Danforth Tech, by comparison, is at just 41-per-cent capacity, and even with the Greenwood students, will still only be at an estimated 57-percent capacity by 2025.
Some have wondered why Eastdale Collegiate, which serves special needs students, was not considered to move despite running at just 35per-cent capacity.
Greenwood students have said they believe their school was targeted for closing right from the start, and have accused the board of dismissing their concerns about the condition of the proposed space at Danforth, as well as worries about their safety, given some were targeted by Danforth students in violent altercations during this school year.
If trustees vote to close Greenwood, the program will move to Danforth Tech in the fall of 2017, and the building is expected to be sold. Some have accused the board of choosing Greenwood because of its real estate value.
Greenwood is unique in that it serves newly arrived immigrants, with supports and settlement services as well as a number of English-asa-second-language classes they won’t find elsewhere. They remain at the school until they are ready to move to their area high school, typically one to three semesters.
Area superintendent Mike Gallagher has previously told the Star the board is under orders from the provincial government “to make better use of our space” so “the status quo isn’t an option.”
And while Greenwood’s enrolment is healthy, he said Danforth has specialized facilities, such as expensive commercial kitchens and an auto body shop so it doesn’t make sense to close it, and Eastdale students are too vulnerable.
Former area trustee and community activist Cathy Dandy submitted a letter to last week’s committee, saying “the board did not follow its own equity policy in terms of working with the kids and families,” and that she ended up acting as a “stand-in for their parents who could not attend (meetings) due to work commitments. It was at this point that I became aware of the discriminatory bias of the process.”
Students were “not familiar with the process and there was no interpreter working with them to help them understand it. They assumed that if they represented their school and said ‘no’ to moving, they would be listened to” as students at other schools were. “They suffered serious distress that they were failing their fellow students.”
Long-time Greenwood teacher Sally Bliss said “I know my community cares deeply about how newcomers are treated. The (committee) decision to relocate Greenwood School to Danforth contradicts this commitment . . . This decision is about making cuts and it does so to the people we promise to support when they come to our country.”