New $5M sports field and running track on tap for high school in Mississauga
Published October 25, 2024 at 11:59 am
A high school in Mississauga’s west end and the community around it will soon have a new $5 million sports field and running track thanks to another deal struck between the City of Mississauga and the public school board.
City councillors gave the green light on Wednesday to a plan that will see the outdated sports field and track at The Woodlands Secondary School transformed into a new facility that will include a multi-purpose artificial turf field for soccer, field hockey, football, rugby and lacrosse.
The updated site, estimated to cost between $5 million and $5.6 million, will also include lighting and an eight-lane track facility, city officials said.
Under a joint-use and funding agreement between the city and Peel District School Board, each partner will pay around $2.54 million to get the job done. Provincial grants are also expected to help finance the project.
Ward 6 Coun. Joe Horneck said a new field and track are badly needed at the Erindale Station Road/McBride Avenue high school.
He said the ball got rolling when two gym teachers and the school principal approached the city with a plea for help.
“They came to us and said ‘the field at the back of The Woodlands is in terrible shape. We can’t even use it; we’re going and we’re renting space at Huron Park to play sports.'”
View from the school parking lot shows the current sports field in the distance.
Noting similar cost-sharing deals have previously been struck between the city and local school boards in other parts of Mississauga, Horneck said the new facility in his ward “is really going to benefit the community … it’ll be a great example of how school boards and the city can work together.”
Mayor Carolyn Parrish, who was closely involved in similar deals that brought new sports facilities to two Malton schools when she served as councillor for Ward 5, threw her full support behind the latest joint-use facility deal.
“It does need refurbishing. It’s been the same old cinder track and mess for years,” she said of The Woodlands facility, adding such deals between the city and school boards work well because “it’s the same taxpayer in the end. The kids get to use it during school hours and the community gets to use it after hours. It’s really doing dual purpose; it’s a fantastic use of our money.”
Parrish represented the Malton area of Mississauga when two schools there — Lincoln Alexander and Ascension of Our Lord secondary schools — benefitted from the same type of cost-sharing agreement between the school boards and the city.
She said provincial grants helped pay for both of those projects and she anticipates the same commitment will come from the province on The Woodlands deal.
In a report to councillors, Mississauga’s community services commissioner Jodi Robillos supported the latest agreement.
“The city has a long-standing partnership with the Peel District School Board to share facilities on city lands and vice versa,” she concluded in her report. “The city’s contribution to this project will ensure community access to an improved track and field facility that provides opportunities for residents to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.”
Robillos added such joint-use deals with school boards “are an efficient way to deliver park services such as all-weather artificial turf track and field facilities. This partnership will maximize available resources while meeting the community’s recreational needs.”
The agreement will see both partners split costs related to construction, maintenance and any repairs to the facility.
A completion date for the project has not yet been provided.
The Woodlands Secondary School has needed upgrades to its sports field and track for a long time, school and city officials say.