More than 300 people have signed the petition supporting OVCO’s community mandate that the OV Community Hub continue to share space with TDSB schools temporarily relocated to the former Vaughan Road Academy.

OVCO has followed up on this community mandate with a meeting with Toronto District Board of Education planning officials. Our first concern was the uncertainty of keeping the OV Community Hub’s current space in the school beyond September 2026 when the current lease ends because another school was scheduled to be temporarily relocated to  the Hub’s space for the next two years.

OVCO has secured agreement with TDSB officials that the planned relocation of Eglinton Public School to the VRA school will not happen next September and neither will any other school undergoing renovation or construction be moving into the VRA next year.

This assures the OV Community Hub’s security of tenure at least until September 2027. With some confidence that it has a fix on TDSB capital development plans over the next three years, OVCO will be pressing for a term even longer than 2027 in its next lease negotiations.

Security of tenure is the first issue in the community mandate on the community use of the former VRA. The next issue is flexibility on the OV Hub’s operating hours (evening and weekend rather than only weekday hours) so that more community programming can be provided.

This will involve difficult negotiations with the TDSB, since, again, it is outside normal practice. The TDSB officials, however, agreed to meet with OVCO in the New Year to hear our case on behalf of the community.

We will keep you updated and let you know if we require any ways in which you can assist with this next stage in our campaign for greater community access to and use of the former VRA.

Peter Clutterbuck

OVCO Chair