A specialized Toronto school is at the centre of a growing dispute, after the Toronto District School Board moved to relocate it and parents pushed back hard against the plan. CBC News reported on the conflict surrounding Hayden Park Secondary School, where families say an institution they fought to get their children into is now being pushed out of its home.
Hayden Park is not a typical school. It supports transgender and non-binary students and specializes in working with children who have higher needs, offering far smaller classes than the mainstream system. One parent said her daughter had previously been in a class with a ratio of one to six and is now thriving, arguing the school should be treated as a model to be replicated rather than a site to be closed.
For many of these families, the stakes feel personal. Some parents said their children had effectively been bullied out of mainstream classes before finding a place at Hayden Park, and they now feel their families are being bullied again through the relocation process, this time by the very board that runs the school they came to rely on.
The trigger was a letter sent this week to the school community by TDSB Superintendent Jennifer Chan. It explained that Ord Street Public School, located just 700 metres away, will move into Hayden Park this September to accommodate Ord Street students during the construction of a 60-storey tower at 149 College Street, which sits next to the school playground.
For Hayden Park itself, that means being uprooted. The school is being told it will have to relocate as early as January 2027. One parent described the plan as feeling like a backdoor way for the board to get the children out of the building and never bring them back to the location, deepening suspicions about the board's long-term intentions.
Parents say the squeeze has been building for some time. Last summer, some protested a board decision to halt grade nine enrolment, and this spring the board informed the school it was also cutting out grade ten, even though officials had previously said no decision had been made about Hayden Park's long-term future. The school council co-chair said parents have not been consulted and have not been told which TDSB location their children will be moved to, stressing that families need stability, security and a voice in decisions about their own kids.
The board defended the move. The TDSB said there is not enough room at Hayden Park to accommodate its existing population as well as the 400 students coming over from Ord Street Public School, and that Hayden Park, including its staff, students and administrators, will remain together at its next location. Chan's letter acknowledged Hayden Park as a close-knit community with strong connections to its current home and pledged to make the transition as smooth as possible, with the board saying that while the decision has been made, meetings are scheduled with parents to provide answers and hear feedback.