Sitting on almost two and a half acres of land on one of Toronto’s busiest and most popular streets, community members fear Old Orchard Public School on Ossington Avenue has caught the eye of developers.

Last December, the City of Toronto adopted a new policy allowing the development of 14-storey buildings on designated large streets to provide more housing options for Torontonians. The policy initially included school lands, but after pushback from concerned residents, the city exempted them.

Now, CityNews has learned that the Toronto District School Board is actively fighting that decision.

“It seems very purposeful to me that this school was targeted,” says parent and community activist Virginia Johnson.

“I think it creates a huge conflict of interest because school boards are strapped for cash, and it creates a huge incentive.”

If the TDSB is successful, it would be the first time active school properties are pre-approved for mid-rise developments if the board decides the property is no longer needed for students and declared a surplus, removing an important barrier that protects the lands.

“This is all part of the Conservatives’ plan to sell off schools to developers to address a chronic funding shortfall that is entirely of Doug Ford’s own making,” said NDP Finance Critic Jessica Bell.

“Toronto is a rapidly growing city – we are going to need these schools in the future.”

The Ford government has taken over eight school boards, including the TDSB, giving the Education Minister more control over the sites and the power to decide which properties are no longer needed for students.

“They want to extract money from that, they want to get the value of that land or that property when in actual fact we put those properties aside to make sure we would have places where our kids can go to school,” said Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.

“Now the government’s saying that doesn’t matter, that doesn’t matter because I’ve got somebody who wants to build here because it’s very valuable. Well, our kids’ education, and having a great school for them, is very valuable as well.” 

In a statement to CityNews, the TDSB says it is not currently considering the sale of any school properties affected by this appeal, adding, “The matter under appeal involves a small number of TDSB properties affected by a recent motion involving City of Toronto policies to facilitate the provision of housing. TDSB is seeking to ensure that these sites are included in the City of Toronto’s policy as originally contemplated to protect our ability to accommodate future students living in these communities.”