TDSB calls on Ontario government to lift moratorium on school closures [Video]

The Toronto District School Board is requesting the Ontario government to give it a special exemption to combine up to four schools per year until the provincial moratorium on school closures is lifted to ease budget pressures.

During a special meeting on Thursday, TDSB trustees unanimously voted in favour of a motion calling on Education Minister Stephen Lecce to remove the moratorium placed in 2017 that has prevented school boards from closing or merging underutilized schools.

The TDSB said in a statement that the move “will help address growing costs to maintain underutilized schools across the TDSB and facilitate long-term planning.”

If the province decides to keep the moratorium in place, the board proposes that it be granted a special exemption to consolidate up to four schools a year. The TDSB noted that it would allow it to review schools with low enrolment and replace them with a smaller number of state-of-the-art schools with higher enrolment, which in turn would result in a wider variety …