Toronto District School Board trustees have voted to permanently close seven pools as a cost-saving measure, while temporarily closing 13 others.

As a result of the trustee vote on Wednesday night, the following pools will be closed:

  • Bickford Centre
  • Bloor Collegiate Institute
  • Central Commerce Collegiate
  • Danforth Collegiate and Tech. Institute
  • Oakwood Collegiate Institute
  • Parkdale Collegiate Institute
  • Ursula Franklin Academy (at Western Tech)

    Board staff had previously recommended closing the seven pools, which were the most expensive to maintain.

    Another 20 pools will remain open and 13 others will be drained until Dec. 31, to give the board more time to find money to keep them open.

    TDSB Chair John Campbell released a statement about the results of Wednesday's vote.

    "Over the past two years, the Toronto District School Board has endeavoured to find secure, sustainable funding to keep as many pools as possible open," Campbell said. "Last night, we took a prudent, incremental approach that ensure funded pools stay open and other pools, currently unfunded, can be reopened when and where incremental funding is attained."

    In April of last year, the TDSB announced plans to shut down 39 pools by June 2009. The board said it no longer had the money to keep the pools running.

    The provincial health promotion ministry stepped in, giving enough funding to keep the pools running until this month.

    In the interim, former Toronto mayor David Crombie was asked to examine the issue. But by April 2009, no solution had been found.

    Premier Dalton McGuinty said in April that the province would provide capital funding for the pools, but it would be up to the TDSB, the city of Toronto and the private sector to find the money to actually run them.

    Toronto's Mayor David Miller said the city already pitched in by paying the TDSB for the day use of 33 other pools, supplementing the 30 pools the city operates on its own.

    The pool debate is only one part of a wider debate over the TDSB's budget.

    Trustees will meet again on Thursday to discuss the 2009-2010 budget.