First, a Happy New Year and sincerest thanks to the 382 supporters who have signed our petition to date to keep our community space at the former Vaughan Road Academy (VRA) and to expand the community programming offered there.
In this petition leadership of the Oakwood Vaughan Community Organization (OVCO) asked for a mandate from the community in support of our efforts to:
- Seek assurance from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC) that the former VRA will remain a shared public space for public education and community programming;
- Secure a long-term lease beyond September 2026 for the continued operation of the OV Community Hub out of the former VRA;
- Discuss openly and constructively a range of options for maintaining the OV Community Hub in the former VRA; and
- Negotiate a lease with greater flexibility in the operating hours of the OV Community Hub so that more child, youth and family community programming can be provided.
We brought the strong support for this community mandate into discussion with TDSB and TLC officials in November and achieved some success on the first two points in the mandate. We had been alerted to the plan to bring another temporary school into our OV Community Hub space in September 2026, requiring our departure.
Our own research on the prospective temporary relocation of other schools to the OV area in 2026-27 showed that all schools on the TDSB capital renovation list are too far distant for bussing school children into the VRA. TDSB and TLC officials acknowledged this and agreed that there would be no temporary school requiring our OV Community Hub space for 2026-27.
As a result, the OV Community Hub and community programming are secure in the former VRA until at least September of 2027. While not long-term security of tenure, it gives us time to work towards that objective.
This also gives OVCO time to further develop community programming for the OV Community Hub and to establish on a permanent basis the Hub’s vital role in service to the under-resourced OV community, which means pursuing 3 and 4 in the above community mandate. These discussion with the TDSB and TLC officials will be more difficult, since they will require some flexibility on their part from the usual lease provisions for community use, such as operating hours that allow for some evening and weekend programming.
We did, however, get agreement from TDSB and TLC that they would enter discussions with us on these issues in the New Year. So, we are now assembling a team of community members to join with OVCO leadership in starting these discussions in January-February. We will, again, refer to the strong community support for our purpose as reflected in the numbers signed on to our petition.
We will keep you updated on our progress, and, if there is any way that your further action could assist us, we will let you know (e.g. sending messages directly to the officials involved).
We thank you again for your tremendous support to date.
Sincerely,
Peter C.
Peter Clutterbuck
OVCO Chair
416-738-3228
Chair.ovco@gmail.com