{"id":33559,"date":"2023-09-07T19:34:45","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T23:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33559"},"modified":"2023-09-07T19:34:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T23:34:47","slug":"board-to-repurpose-current-williams-site-for-further-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/board-to-repurpose-current-williams-site-for-further-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Board to repurpose current Williams site for further programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2026, a new home for Dr. G.W. Williams is set to open on Spring Farm Road at Bayview Avenue, but that won\u2019t be the end of the line for the school\u2019s current site on Dunning Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, as the Province, Town, and York Region District School Board (YRDSB) celebrated the next phase in the new school\u2019s construction, Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy noted the existing site, which opened its doors to students 71 years ago, will see the YRDSB \u201cconsolidate existing nearby Regional education centres\u201d within the Dunning Building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the move of Dr. G.W. Williams was put in motion six years ago, questions have surrounded the future of the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the future of the building now solidified, questions remain on how the grounds left behind by students will be used in the years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the previous term of Council, local lawmakers approved a motion to facilitate discussions with the YRDSB for, among other purposes, the use of sports fields, which are in a perennial deficit in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe still have some operational decisions to make on what that\u2019s going to look like for us right now,\u201d said YRDSB Director of Education Bill Cober last week. \u201cDepending on our continuing education program, administrative service space, we have operational decisions still to make in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Thursday\u2019s announcement, however, Mayor Tom Mrakas reiterated Council\u2019s position that opportunities are still worth pursuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always interested in pursuing any lands within our community that we could utilize in providing more, whether its sports fields or programming new facilities, whatever it is we can look at because land is very scarce in our Town when it comes to looking at what\u2019s available,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely something we\u2019re going to continue to look at. We have constantly been kind of throwing out little hints to the school board from that initial motion that said, \u2018Let\u2019s have that initial conversation with them,\u2019 but there was no need from the school board perspective to have those conversations at that time, so now with this announcement things will probably start to ramp up. I am hoping we can be part of that discussion with the school board and see what we can do to increase some opportunities for our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have already approved $2.4 million to build an artificial turf field, similar to the agreement and partnership we have with St. Max. It\u2019s the exact same agreement, the exact same type of partnership where it is used by the community at large, and during school hours it is used by the school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2026, a new home for Dr. G.W. Williams is set to open on Spring Farm Road at Bayview Avenue, but that won\u2019t be the end of the line for the school\u2019s current site on Dunning Avenue. On Thursday, as the Province, Town, and York Region District School Board (YRDSB) celebrated the next phase in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Jh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 11:58:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}