Inner City School needs to move

Edmonton's Inner City High School needs to find a new home after a city council committee approved the construction of a revitalization project the school doesn't want to be part of.

The school pulled out of the Boyle Renaissance Project in March after staff learned it would be sharing a new building with other agencies and their clients.

Principal Joe Cloutier says students at the school — who have been described as "high-risk" — need to be housed in their own space.

"They're used to dealing with any issues of violence with aggression, and if they're approached in the wrong way, say, by … staff from another agency, then the kind of reaction they might get could be dangerous," Cloutier said.

The school has been housed for the last 17 years in the Boyle Street Community League building, which will be torn down for the redevelopment.

School officials asked council's executive committee to delay the project to give them more time to find a temporary back-up. They are currently in negotiations to find a new home.

People need deadlines, mayor says

But councillors on the committee declined, saying that the longer the project was delayed, the higher costs would run.

They recommended city council cancel the lease with the Boyle Street Community League and the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, which would mean all tenants would have to be out within six months. 

Mayor Stephen Mandel defended the move to cancel the lease without the agreement of the Boyle Street Community League membership.

"This is a very important project. It's going to begin to change the face of that community and give a new lease on life for those lands … so let's not hold it up," he said. "Let's move forward.

"I think by giving people deadlines, they end up finding solutions to things."

The project will house a new community centre run by the Boyle Street Community League and the YMCA Welcome Village, which will have 150 affordable housing units, a daycare and a family resource centre.

Building construction will go ahead without the school, said Walter Trocenko with the city of Edmonton's planning department.

"We still intend to proceed with the community hub, and we still intend to proceed with the YMCA project, and the site works fine with one less building," he said.

The decision to cancel the lease still has to be approved by city council as a whole.