TheBulletin.ca Journal of Downtown Toronto
Ward 10 trustee reports
By Chris Bolton –
Lots of exciting things have been happening in the Toronto District School Board and locally within the ward.
Recently board director Chris Spence announced the appointment of the board’s first marketing director, Barbara Brown, who will be instrumental in enhancing the board’s marketing strategy to attract students from all over—including internationally—to focus on retention and reintegration, and in ensuring education is promoted as a lifelong venture for people of all ages.
Locally we have also made announcements about how a long community process that started over three years ago has become official in the city.
The Shaw St. building will now be part of the school and part of the neighbourhood but also an entity on its own, as Artscape got the go ahead to buy this severed property to create a community arts centre. The new centre will house artists and creative groups who will support community activity and offer Givins/Shaw Public School resources and opportunities to collaborate and enhance each other.
It is a process that proves that communities know what is best for them and can work co-operatively with the school board, city, and community partners to create something that is reflective of, and based upon, the needs of the community. Through an organic community consultation process everyone felt included and the outcome, although lengthy, was worth every minute we put into it.
We should take time to thank the school council of Givins/Shaw and the community for working with us to make this a success and a lighthouse project in Toronto.
The summer camp—which has operated quite successfully in the ward for the past three years—is also a testament of our vision of schools as community hubs, which is becoming more of a reality every day. However all of this has only been possible with our collective efforts and the collaboration between the different levels of government and community members.
