Will Dante Alighieri find a new home?
[attach]5322[/attach]The Toronto Catholic District School Board is entering into a joint feasibility study with Villa Charities to figure out how they want to utilize 13.5 hectares of land around Dufferin Street and Lawrence Avenue West.
Two schools currently sit on the site: Dante Alighieri Academy and Regina Mundi Catholic School, as well as the campus for Villa Charities, a family of organizations that offers programming for seniors and youth.
Currently, the school board rents dance studios and computer labs at Villa’s Columbus Centre, in part because Dante Alighieri Academy is severely overpopulated. The school’s own building accommodates just less than 600 of the 1,300 registered students who are housed either in portables or off site.
As a result, the grade 9 students are housed at Sir Sanford Fleming Academy with other students scattered in about 20 portables, said the board’s associate director of planning and facilities, Angelo Sangiorgio.
“From our perspective, what we’re obviously looking to do is build a brand new secondary school and to leverage some of the existing partnerships that we’ve enjoyed with Villa over the years,” said Sangiorgio. “(Currently) it’s all over the place … So our goal is to bring all the campuses together in one location, from a secondary school perspective. “
If that were to happen, Regina Mundi’s students would move into the existing Dante Alighieri building, the elementary school’s building would be demolished, and a new secondary school would be built on that site.
Sangiorgio says this could be an effective solution because the Dante Alighieri building is in much better condition than Regina Mundi.
“It not only accommodates their present requirements and eliminates some portables, but also provides for the elementary population to grow because the building is bigger and in better condition,” he said.
The first step in the feasibility study is a needs assessment, which evaluates what both parties need in terms of a structure, space and facilities.
This could alter the vision for the new building, depending on what Villa Charities wants and how much capital funding they can put forward.
“That building could then be a multi-use building, and perhaps some of the recreational or other program spaces that Villa has could be shared with the secondary school,” Sangiorgio said. “And that’s where the feasibility study comes in.”
An architect is currently meeting with personnel both from the school board and Villa Charities, and is expected to report back on the feasibility of a partnership in March.
“It’s fair to say we’re really excited about the potential of developing this partnership with Villa,” Sangiorgio said.
