With more Toronto families living in towering condos, the Toronto District School Board is planning to build schools to serve them.
The board is taking the province up on its call for "podium" schools, which are integrated into a development project and situated at the base, or podium, of a residential building, for example.
According to the Ford government, other "innovative" ways to build schools would include having schools co-located with child-care centres, municipal buildings and commercial developments.
For the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), a "podium" school is on its list of submissions for the latest round of capital priorities, according to Ryan Glenn, CEO of the Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the board.
"One of the things that we're focused on is trying to come up with innovative and creative ways to deliver schools in dense urban areas," Glenn said, noting that this has been a focus for his team for more than a year.
"There's areas in Toronto you don't really have to be as creative, because there's still land available, places like Scarborough and Etobicoke, but in the old part of the city, obviously land is scarce," he said. "If we had to go buy three acres of land in downtown Toronto ... that's not feasible. You can't do it because the value of the property is so expensive to build these kinds of traditional brick-and-mortar schools with a larger outdoor play space, so we have to think differently."
The board's proposals include a new kindergarten to Grade 6 "podium" school that would be incorporated into one of the City of Toronto's "Housing Now" developments, where city-owned land is used to develop affordable housing.
Glenn said if the project gets approval from the province, the TDSB would own the school site and there would be a shared-use agreement for the schoolyard/park. While there would be shared heating and air conditioning between the school and condo, the elevators would be separate.
"That's in the area of high need and high growth," he said. "That's a site that we've prioritized."
Another project that the province has already promised funding for is the "Sugar Wharf New Podium School" near Toronto's waterfront, which would include a new TDSB elementary school as part of a mixed-use development by Menkes.
The province announced $44 million for the project in January 2022.
Glenn said the TDSB owns property close to that site where it's considering another school and residential development.
He said it's not just about "providing innovative, creative opportunities for schools, but also to help create complete communities within the city as well."
"You want to have new, modern, functional schools, but you also want to be able to have kids and faculty who live in proximity wherever possible so they don't have to travel that far to get to school," he said.
Glenn said there are different considerations when incorporating a school into a condominium, such as the functionality of the school and the flow of the school population.
"If they have to go up a floor or two to get to their classroom, how does that work when they have to come out for recess? How does that work when they have to go out for lunch and play? So just the movement of the kids throughout the day and how you make sure that you're not spending an inordinate amount of time getting them up and down stairs or across the street to go to a park," he said.
The provincial government has been encouraging the move.
"With Ontario’s population increasing steadily, the government plans to build on the momentum of its $1.3 billion investment in Capital Priorities in 2023-24 to focus on shovel-ready projects that will continue to help meet the needs of growing communities," a memo from the education ministry to boards stated, adding that the goal is to "build modern schools faster, better utilize school capacity and enhance accountability and transparency."
The projects that receive funding, the ministry said, would need to have a "demonstrated need, either to meet an accommodation pressure, improve the condition of a school, provide access to French-language rights holders or create new licensed child care spaces."
Included in the memo launching the latest round of capital priorities funding was a section on the challenges in high-density urban areas.
"Finding suitable land for the construction of a school is challenging and expensive. As residential development is expected to continue to be high in urban areas, school boards may not be able to construct schools according to the traditional model," the memo said. "The ministry encourages school boards to pursue opportunities to explore new, innovative ways to build schools – such as vertical schools and podium schools."
Sue Winton, a professor with York University's education faculty, said she thinks there are things school boards and the province should pay attention to when locating schools within buildings that aren't publicly owned. This includes who makes the decisions about how and when the building is used, and under what terms.
"So how is that space made available to the community after school?" Winton said, adding that she would encourage schools to be accessible to community groups at affordable rates.
Winton said another question is who is responsible for maintenance if a school is located within a private residential building, for example.
"Who's in charge? Who's making the decisions, on whose timeline? Are those contractors that are coming into the space — have they met the sort of safety requirements that anybody working in a school would have to follow?" she said.
"So it's not to say it could never work, but just (to) suggest that these are very practical differences," Winton said. "If it's a business, they have a profit goal ... but a public organization has different priorities. Their priorities need to be accessibility, inclusion."
For NDP education critic Chandra Pasma, the biggest things to consider are student safety and the "appropriateness of the facilities."
"Do you have outdoor space? Do you have a gym? Do you have windows?" she said.
Several boards are considering different types of schools, such as "podium schools," while others said they don't currently have a need for them.
Shazia Vlahos, spokesperson for the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), said the board has been thinking about schools in different settings.
"As the City of Toronto deals with increased residential intensification, the availability of larger sites to accommodate the construction of traditional schools is limited. For this reason, we have been considering innovative solutions such as vertical school solutions (podium schools) to meet the accommodation needs in areas of the City related to high-density residential development," Vlahos said.
"When reviewing options, considerations are made for the provision of green space for outdoor education. This can be accomplished by constructing new school buildings adjacent to City parks and developing related agreements/partnerships with the City for students to access this space," she added.
Vlahos said Bishop Macdonell Catholic School is one example of this where the TCDSB has partnered with the TDSB and the city to create a community hub where the facilities are shared.
The Peel District School Board (PDSB) said it currently doesn't have "podium" or "vertical" schools, but that it is considering incorporating some features of these for future projects.
"PDSB staff have consulted with municipal partners with respect to the planning of potential school sites to support future student accommodation needs in communities experiencing significant intensification," PDSB spokesperson Malon Edwards said in an email. "In recognition of the challenges around finding suitable land at an affordable cost, PDSB is currently planning for future schools to be situated on smaller sites that will incorporate some of the features identified in the Ministry's vertical school vision. Discussions with municipal partners continue on how best to plan and design these schools."
Patrick Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, said his board approved its capital priorities submissions and they include an addition to an existing elementary school and a new high school in the community of Binbrook, which has enough land for a traditional school.
"If we had a need, if we had overcapacity in the inner city of Hamilton and there was an opportunity for partnering with a developer with regard to a podium school ... for sure, we would look at it, but right now, in terms of where our enrolment growth is, it just wouldn't make sense," he said.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board said it wasn't considering podium schools at this time. Neither is the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, which said it doesn't have any vertical schools or shared-site proposals as part of its submissions for this round of capital priorities funding, but that it's open to including them in the future.
A spokesperson for the education minister said the province is "building more state-of-the-art schools to support the needs of Ontario’s students, families, and growing communities."
"By investing in innovative and modern learning spaces, we’re ensuring students have access to the quality education that will provide them with lifelong skills and education in a safe and healthy environment," said Edyta McKay.