The Toronto District School Board is warning residents of Leslieville that there may be a property in the area for your family, but there may not be a school nearby for your child to attend.
In areas like Leslieville, condominiums are booming and new families are moving in quickly. But, after moving to the neighbourhood with her almost eight-month-old baby Jacob, Angela Engel has discovered that her son might have to go to school elsewhere.
Engel told CTV News Toronto on Friday that she thinks it is wrong contractors are continuing to build new condo buildings that are appealing to young parents.
“There are a ton of new moms in the area – if you walk down the street there are strollers constantly – it seems like almost everybody has a new baby in the neighbourhood,” she said. “If they’re already filling up the schools, it’s not going to be better in three years when (Jacob) has to go to school.”
Walking around the area residents are finding signs posted by the TDSB stating an important notice to new and potential residents.
“The TDSB makes every effort to accommodate students at local schools,” the TDSB said on the signs. “However, due to residential growth, sufficient accommodation may not be available for all students. Students may be accommodated in schools outside this area until space in local schools becomes available.”
After seeing one of these signs, Engel said she is concerned about where her son will be able to go to school when he is at the appropriate age.
“I don’t know how far that (accommodation) would be because there are a lot of new families everywhere around here so it might be pretty far,” she said.
TDSB spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz told CTV News Toronto that the signs are meant to warn parents that there will be a spot available for your child at a TDSB school, it just may be out of the area.
“Of course there is a going to be a space for you at a school, it just may not be the local school and anything out of the 1.6 kilometre walking distance we will bus you there, to your closest school,” she said.
Schwartz-Maltz said this issue has been happening for a while in many area of Toronto where there is very significant population growth and condo buildings on the rise.
Engel said she would like her son be able to walk to school but thinks that is unrealistic at this moment.
Due to the high real estate prices in Toronto, younger families are opting to live in condo buildings as opposed to stand alone homes. This change in the housing market has caused a spark in building new condo buildings in and around the downtown core.
“They shouldn’t be approving new condominiums until they build enough schools for the capacity that they have,” she said. “Everywhere they are building new condominiums and town houses.”
Engel said she is not against the up rise in new condo buildings, but she wants there to be enough public schools in the area to accommodate the surplus.
She said for people who cannot afford to send their child to private school there should be more options then one TDSB public school and one catholic school in the area.
