Civil Municipal - April 2024

Catholic education at the secondary level,” explains Milka Zlomislic, TCDSB’s Superintendent of Capital Development. “Prior to full funding, our secondary schools were not built to the standards of publicly-funded secondary schools. My department endeavors to contribute to the built infrastructure; we do what we can to make the spaces more inviting and better for learning and academic programming. Today, we have 26 new schools that are in various stages of development.” One of those new schools to open in the near future is the combined St. Bruno/St. Raymond Elementary School, a $24.4 million project that will offer unique physical amenities intended to accommodate the significant number of its students who are deaf or hard of hearing. “The architect (Kohn Shnier) did a lot of investigation into how students who are deaf and hard of hearing related to one another,” Zlomislic recounts. “So when they designed things like ramps and stairs, they considered how students are signing to one another as they’re walking through spaces. The walls are curved to help students as they navigate around corners. They also focused the classroom spaces on the south side of the school so that the students have a spectacular view of the city of Toronto; facing south, theywill see the downtown core.With windows on the south side, the school also intends to capture sunlight and heat in the winter. So, that’s a pretty exciting project based on its location, its design, and all the amenities it’s going to offer students.” Zlomislic says that the Ministry’s funding is “very prescriptive” in terms of how funding can be spent on new schools, major additions, and renewals. “The Ministry is very focused on improving infrastructure, including roofs, HVAC units, window restorations – all the nuts and bolts of brick-and- mortar buildings,” she notes. “In addition to keeping roofs from leaking and heating systems in a good state of repair, we’ve been trying to find money for some of the other initiatives that are important for schools and children, recognizing 280 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 5, ISSUE 04