Working Group meeting Oct. 21 - Updates to come

Just a quick post following tonight's Working Group meeting to offer some news. The important nugget of information to take away from this is that the decision has been deferred to February of next year. This will give us adequate time to marshal resources and prepare a coherent deputation to present to the board of trustees.

The other side of this, though, is that the TDSB is taking the position that their Sept. 30 proposal should stand as-is, and they want the boundary change exactly as proposed to take effect September 2015 regardless. 

Needless to say, this is a disappointment as we felt strongly that the data analysis we presented effectively refuted their overcrowding projections. They thought otherwise, so now it's up to us to convince the board of trustees that our ideas will do enough to remedy the school's alleged overcrowding problem, while preserving its unique socioeconomic mix.  We think that's worth fighting for. We hope you do too.

More information to come as we get it, including dates and deputation details. Stay on alert. We'll need everyone's support as we take the next steps.

Murray Whyte 

TDSB has posted revised projections for Garden...our efforts are working!

As of this afternoon, the TDSB has publicly posted updated student population projections for Garden, Fern and Parkdale schools on the TDSB website . At the insistence of our group, the TDSB used the actual Garden enrolment numbers for 2014, instead of last year's incorrect projected enrolment numbers for 2014.

The result is dramatically different that what was presented at the public meeting last Tuesday.  We are actually at 277 students enrolled at Garden for the 2014/2015 school year, as opposed to the 306 students they were projecting.    Garden is not projected to be approaching capacity until 2016, for example, a stark contrast to the dire "overcrowding" the TDSB originally projected to already be in effect. 

Interestingly, Parkdale shows increasingly dwindling numbers as well, putting it in a very challenging position for a school its size. So it appears the TDSB has several issues to address, and not just one, as initially suggested. Please have a look at the numbers below. 

WE NEED YOUR IDEAS! If you have suggestions for solutions or approaches, please email us at keepgardenunited@gmail.com