Ward Eight Trustee Shelley Laskin has informed parents of children attending (and those destined to attend) Davisville Public School that the new building on Millwood Rd. will take a year longer than expected to complete. This means that classes will begin at the newly-constructed DPS and Spectrum School in the 2021 school year rather than 2020. Several reasons are cited for this change including the slowness of permit approval at all levels and delayed approval from the Department of Education caused by the change of government last summer. These changes were the subject of a parents meeting held Tuesday at Hodgson EMS. In a letter to parents Ms Laskin said:
On April 4, 2019 staff received a letter from Percon (the contractor) confirming the construction schedule. I was deeply disappointed to understand, and now share with you, that Percon has advised they need 2 years to complete the project.
During last week staff had tried to see if the timeline could be accelerated and unfortunately it cannot. Again, the reason for the delay in occupancy date is because we are starting later than scheduled. Recall that if construction had started after tender closed last fall, we would have opened in September 2020 as scheduled; since we are now starting in April 2019, contract completion now shifts to Spring of 2021.
I wanted to get this out to you as soon as possible – I know many of you assumed the project would be delayed as you watched the months slip by with no word and no provincial approval – but that doesn’t negate the disappointment, anger and frustration and I understand that as frankly, I feel the same way and my children are not bussed to and from school every day
Plans and depictions for the school and adjoining sites reveal an airy and bright three storey school with modern amenities. The City (not the TDSB) will build an adjoining Aquatic Centre available to the students. Traffic patterning at the end of the school is designed to permit parents to safely pick up children. Among the attractive features is a roof top playground.
