Welcome to DCS! Degrassi Community School carries on the proud tradition of Degrassi schools of the past. With a complete renovation, state-of-the-art Media Lab, and a committed staff, Degrassi Community School looks towards the future with high hopes for our bright, creative, and diverse student body!
Our staff is led by Principal Dan Raditch, who was a teacher at Degrassi High before the school was closed in 1991. Thanks mostly to his efforts, Degrassi was renovated and reopened with the mandate of providing a well-rounded education with emphasis on using the computer as a teaching tool. This led to the implementation of Degrassi Community School's Media Immersion program. The M. I. program gives Degrassi graduates a "leg up", preparing them to be leaders in the arts, sciences, and businesses of tomorrow.
It is my pleasure to be back at Degrassi, and I am honoured to be the new Degrassi Community School's first Principal. I look forward to meeting new students and seeing familiar faces in the hallways once again.
The school has gone through some big changes over the years. After a fire, the school reopened, only to be closed again a few years later because of a shrinking student base and an unfortunate asbestos problem. After sitting empty for a decade, and becoming the home of a proud and defiant colony of raccoons, I personally convinced the school board to renovate and reopen the new Degrassi Community School. With our new Media Immersion curriculum, and state-of-the-art computer and video equipment, Degrassi Community School is a "specialty" school that attracts students from all over the district. Our students want to be fully prepared for the ever-changing world that awaits them, and, thanks to some brave and imaginative school board trustees, their DCS education will allow them to rise to the challenges of the future
Media Immersion Academic Philosophy
Putting computers in the classroom was one thing, now it's time to learn how to really use them.
Sure, students at Degrassi Community School learn all about computers and what they can do. But we've discovered that students are very quick learners when it comes to mastering the basics. At Degrassi CS we build on this knowledge and take media-assisted education to another level.
Media Immersion is all about the integration of a variety of media tools into everyday school work. When studying "computers", what student hasn't asked, at some point, "When am I ever going to use this?" With Degrassi CS's Media Immersion curriculum, the answer is right now! That's because a great deal of school work, whether it's math, science, English, or whatever, will be done using computers, still cameras, video cameras, and other media tools.
Of course, everyone has to learn the nuts 'n' bolts of how to work these things. This simply becomes a part of the learning process. For example, a student may have an Internet research project on turtles. This research will allow the student to find out more about turtles, but, in doing so, he or she will become familiar with web browsers, search engines, scanning, photo editing software, computer terminology, word processing, and printing.
Sounds like a lot to digest for one project, right? Fortunately, at Degrassi CS, you're not alone. In fact, each student is surrounded by a classroom full of potential peer tutors. Media Immersion projects are nearly always done in groups, giving students control of their own learning.
Why 'community' school?[]
Could someone tell me why it's called Degrassi Community School and not High School or Senior School or Collegiate or something? Is there a special relationship of the school with others in the area, e.g. local employers for apprenticeships, or whatever? GCapp1959 06:35, December 8, 2009 (UTC)
Totally Different School Building[]
"After a fire, the school reopened, only to be closed again a few years later because of a shrinking student base and an unfortunate asbestos problem."
This line above has to be totally incorrect. The building that housed Degrassi Junior High School was destroyed by fire in June 1990, in series canon. The building that opened up in the fall of 1990, under the name Degrassi High School, is totally different and bears no resemblance, outside or inside, to the aged structure and narrow, winding hallways of the junior high.
Therefore, I surmise that an existing building was renovated to serve as high school, and that due to some other unspecified event (unparalleled crowding at other high schools in Toronto, or a need to condemn and close some other high school), the new school replaced other facilities.
My favourite theory is this:
- the high school that the grad class of 1989 would've gone on to attend was not merely crowded for space, but had some problems requiring parts of the building to be closed for repairs
- it could not accommodate as many students as the year before, so Grade 9 was temporarily stripped from the building
- Niners had to stay at their junior highs and take some classes at another high school in town (Borden High School)
- ultimately, the high school was condemned as hopelessly irreparable, and was to be closed in the summer of 1990
- the school board hastily renovated an elementary school that had been closed as surplus to their needs
- at graduation, a fire destroys Degrassi Junior High, leaving the name up for grabs
- the condemned high school's name was confusingly similar to other schools in the metro Toronto area, so it was a good opportunity to choose some other name. (e.g., it was called Central Street High, and there was also, in Toronto, Catholic Central High, East York Central High, North York Central High, Etobicoke Central High, Scarborough Central High and City Central High!)
- Degrassi Junior High students (those just finished Grades 8 and 9) vote overwhelmingly to have the new school named Degrassi, outvoting all other alternatives that were proposed
- the "new" high school opens in September 1990 as Degrassi High School
- in spring 1991, a problem with asbestos is discovered; authorities are initially confident of resolution
- as of graduation, the school board decides it must be closed
- the students are dispersed to other schools and there is no longer a Degrassi school, of any grade level, in the area, for ten years
- Daniel Raditch's efforts come to fruition, and the building, now renovated, reopens as Degrassi Community School
Yes, that's just my theory, but it accommodates the visible evidence. No way that Borden High would cease to exist as a name just to be supplanted by a name from a burnt-down junior high. GCapp1959 12:08, December 20, 2009 (UTC)