West Park Secondary School

West Park Secondary School (WPSS, West Park), originally known as West Park Vocational School is a Toronto District School Board public high school facility that operated as a regular school from 1968 to 1988 by the Toronto Board of Education from grade 9 to 13. The school offered various vocational and academic courses in the spacious four-storey school building for inner city schools. The property remains under TDSB possession as of 2019 as a holding school.

History

The West Park property and nearby mall was once a railway yard on the intersection of Bloor and Dundas. It was redeveloped when the school was built and opened in September 1968. West Park Vocational School was a special vocational school for boys with learning difficulties and served the entire western half of the city. In addition to classrooms, the building included a double gymnasium, a tailoring shop, an auditorium and a swimming pool, and a parking garage. The building cost $22.45 per sq ft. The school was designed by Abram and Ingleson Architects.

In 1985, Cathy McPherson, the coordinator of the PUSH Central Region, stated that West Park and five other schools were listed as having "excellent" access for disabled persons by the Toronto Board of Education continuing education program.

Decrease in enrollment had the Toronto Board of Education announced in 1986 that it planned to close the West Park facility by 1988.Contenta, Sandro.
Catholic board wants to take over Toronto's West Park Secondary
" ''Toronto Star''. December 17, 1986. News p. A7. Retrieved on July 23, 2013. "The Metro Separate School Board is eager to take over Toronto's West Park Secondary School - due to be closed in 1988 - in a bid to accommodate the board's growing student population. .. Toronto Board of Education committee has recommended that the full .. and "West Park students are expected to end up in Brockton High School, on Croatia St., south of Bloor St. W. " Irene Atkinson, the trustee of Ward 2, said in 1986 that it would likely be the first Toronto (Old Toronto) school closed due to declining enrollment. A task force recommended that the student body is transferred to Brockton High School. That year, the ''Toronto Star'' wrote that West Park students were expected to be transferred to Brockton. The Metropolitan Separate School Board (now the Toronto Catholic District School Board) offered to take over the campus and make it into a Roman Catholic separate school. The MSSB's Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic High School on St. Clair/Dufferin area was over capacity, and the separate school board wanted additional space. There was a proposal stating that both public secular and public separate schools could share the same building.

On January 7, 1988, Ned McKeown, the director of the TBE, recommended that West Park be transferred to the MSSB. On March 7, 1988, the MSSB accepted taking the West Park facility. Sandro Contenta of the ''Toronto Star'' stated that the TBE was not willing to pay the funds to make the West Park building shareable between the two school boards. The transfer became effective July 1, 1988. Afterwards, the programs at West Park were dispersed at Bickford Park High School (12 classrooms), Brockton High School (3 shops), Castle Frank High School (special education), Central High School of Commerce (special education) and Western Technical-Commercial School (auto shop renovations).

It was reopened as Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School in September 1988, which they were once called Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic High School (opened in 1986) and St. Joseph Commercial School (founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1880 and was renamed to Thomas Merton C.S.S. in 1985).

In 2017, Choice Properties REIT proposed to redevelop the property adjacent to the West Park site, although a replacement school is not ruled out.

See also

*List of high schools in Ontario
*Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School

References

External links

West Park Secondary School on Facebook

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Schools in the TDSB
Educational institutions established in 1968
Educational institutions disestablished in 1988
High schools in Toronto
Toronto Lands Corporation
1968 establishments in Ontario
1988 disestablishments in Ontario