A school trustee is proposing the Toronto District School Board use private funding to save school pools from closing down.

Josh Matlow, a trustee serving the North Toronto area, told CTV.ca he will introduce a motion at Wednesday night's board meeting. The motion will ask the board to consider approaching the private sector to help save 39 pools over the next two years from being closed for good.

"I want to engage the community for support," he said. "We have never taken the time to speak with corporate partners about it."

Matlow said he is looking for a corporate sponsor to step in with a solution at least for this year, giving the school board enough time to negotiate funding with the province.

He pointed to the partnership that was struck up between the city and MasterCard last winter, when the credit card company offered to fund Toronto's outdoor skating rinks for the season.

Corporate sponsorship is not the ideal solution, Matlow conceded, but he said it is the best solution to keep pools open and students active.

The board has decided it will close down 23 pools by June and another 16 pools by next June. Currently, there are 78 pools being operated by the board.

The TDSB has faced a budget crunch since amalgamation, Matlow said. Over the past few years, funding from other programs such as the English as a Second Language program, has been used to help maintain the pools.

Matlow rejected the NDP's idea to allocate $75 million to pools and other health-related infrastructure across the country.

The TDSB pays about $12 million to operate the pools but the facilities cost about $800,000 a year to maintain. Then, there are $50 million worth of repairs that need to be done, Matlow said.

"It's not good enough to come up with pie-in-the-sky proposals," he said. "That means there aren't enough slices to go around."

Queen's Park rally

Meantime, students gathered on the steps of Queen's Park on Tuesday along with their parents, demanding the province help resolve the problem.

Students ran around the grounds of Queen's Park in their swimming attire to symbolize the loss of recreational activity pools provide them with.

They also presented NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo with a petition containing hundreds of signatures. DiNovo promised to deliver the petition to the premier.

"In this climate we're trying to encourage (activity), we get tax credits for physical activity and now they're saying they can't afford to run the pools," said one woman at the rally. "They were built for a reason and they were expensive to build."

Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's education minister, told reporters the TDSB needs to better manage its money.

"The money is there it's a matter of priorities," she said. "What I've said repeatedly is that I think they need to look at their priorities."

Matlow said the board and the government need to stop pointing fingers at each other and try to come up with solutions.

After all, he said, it's not just students who will miss out if pools are closed down. He said many pools are permitted out to community groups.

Toronto was planned in a way that schools would act as community hubs for the neighbourhood, he said.

"Our pools serve the public and students," he said. "They're widely used by seniors, aqua clubs and other community groups."

He said in his ward, the local pool is always over capacity which is why not having a pool at the local high school is a disservice to the community.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Galit Solomon