Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Gerard Greenan visited Birchwood Intermediate School today to announce that new playing and sports fields will be constructed this year for Birchwood and its feeder schools.
The fields will be constructed at a cost of $1.3 million on a four-acre property which is bordered by Lapthorne Avenue, John Street, Kent Home Improvement and the Confederation Trail.
The project construction will include a new regulation-size soccer/football field similar to the main Simmons field on North River Road. It will feature a three meter wide perimeter walking track; bleacher seating for 100 people and soccer, football and rugby goals. A bus turning area, 65 additional parking spaces and a new entrance will be constructed off Longworth Avenue adjacent to the Confederation Trail. The existing practice field on John Street will be maintained and enhanced as part of the sports field complex.
Minister Greenan says the new fields will meet a longstanding unmet need for the students of Birchwood, Prince Street and other inner city schools. “In the past, most physical education activities at these schools had to take place inside the gym or at borrowed facilities,” said the minister. “Now, for the first time, these students will have their own top notch fields to take part in popular sports such as soccer, track and running. By having their own modern facilities close by, they will be able to enhance their physical education programs and build up their interscholastic, intermural and extracurricular programs.”
Residents and community groups will be able to access the new sports and recreational facilities when they are not being used by the schools.
Doug Currie, Minister of Health and a former Birchwood principal, says he knows first-hand how important these facilities are to the healthy development of students and the school community. “Without access to proper facilities, students were spending too much time indoors when they should have been outdoors. They were spending time in the car when they could have been on the field. Now with a place to call their own, students will have equitable opportunities to learn, and city residents will have a beautiful new facility where they can enjoy the outdoors and increase their physical activity.”
Construction is expected to begin in August. The field will be seeded this fall. It will be ready for use in Fall 2009.