TDSB votes to move Greenwood Secondary

Translators were not provided for parents at the meeting to merge ‘newcomer high’ with Danforth Tech, students say

Toronto’s unique “newcomer high” will lose its home and be moved into nearby Danforth Tech after a unanimous vote by trustees late Wednesday night.

The decision was made despite concerns by Greenwood Secondary students, all newly arrived immigrants and refugees, that the process was unfair and their school targeted from the start.

Two student leaders say they plan to file a human rights complaint after they finish exams this week because translators were not made available to them at all meetings of the area review committee. They also note that unlike students at other schools involved, their parents were left out because of language barriers as well as their work schedules.

At Wednesday night’s meeting of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), trustee Jennifer Story said when the process began she was worried that because of lagging enrolment, three schools might be closed in her area.

She said Greenwood — which un- like other schools reviewed actually has a healthy enrolment — will remain a separate entity at Danforth, which is just steps away.

“It’s never easy to make these sorts of decisions,” she said.

Just one trustee, Ken Lister, asked questions about the plan before the vote.

Students say they were unable to attend a meeting about the closing held at the board last week because of Ramadan.

Tolin Abuaziza and student council president Zahra Afshar have told the Star the human rights complaint is their last hope.

Board chair Robin Pilkey has told the Star interpreters were present at the meetings, and noted “we are not closing their school . . . there are lots of examples of schools-withinschools in the TDSB.”

Pilkey said she is unsure what impact a human rights complaint would have on the process.

Greenwood school is set to close in the fall of 2017. Now that the final vote has been taken, the board says it can allocate funds to renovate space within Danforth for the Greenwood program.

Former area trustee Cathy Dandy argues Greenwood students were treated dismissively, and “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.