Since the Ministry of Education announced that it will provide the Toronto District Board with a grant of $5.84 million under their Capital Priorities Program in 2016 to support a 12-classroom addition at Hodgson Middle School, planning projections have changed.
Enrolment projections for every school in the system are revised annually to capture and reflect many dynamic factors including updated actual enrolment, residential development information, demographic data, pupil yields, program changes and retention rates. Two of the major contributing factors to the increase at Hodgson MS are a surge in new residential development applications in the area, and a higher pupil yield associated with those developments.
A community meeting was held on June 11 to provide information about what has happened with enrolment in the area, and to share why the TDSB proposes the scope of the original project (12 room addition) should change. We met with ministry representatives in January 2018 to discuss the concerns with the project and staff were directed to explore options for providing additional capacity – architects were engaged to conduct an assessment of the building and to develop the options. We shared the options and listened to feedback. We will be submitting a business case to the ministry for the addition to be 3 storeys as opposed to 2 (construction scheduled for 2021). We will be back to the community in the fall with another update.