Vaughan Road Academy | |
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Address | |
529 Vaughan Road Toronto, Ontario, M6C 2P7 Canada |
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Coordinates | 43°41′27″N 79°26′12″W / 43.690786°N 79.436678°WCoordinates: 43°41′27″N 79°26′12″W / 43.690786°N 79.436678°W |
Information | |
School type | High school |
Motto |
In Medium Quaesita Reponunt (They lay up in store for common use whatever they have gained) |
Founded | 1927 |
Closed | 2017 |
School board | Toronto District School Board |
Grades | 9–12 |
Language | English |
Colour(s) | Blue, Red, and Gold |
Mascot | Viper |
Team name | Vaughan Road Vipers |
Website | schools |
Vaughan Road Academy (VRA) is a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) facility that formerly operated as International Baccalaureate high school. It is located in the Oakwood–Vaughan neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the York district. Previously known as Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute, the former school is situated at the Vaughan Road and Winona Drive intersection, close to Oakwood Avenue. It worked in partnership with the J.R. Wilcox and Cedarvale Community Schools, and from 1998 until the school's closure, it offered the IB Diploma Programme for students in grades 11 and 12. In addition to the International Baccalaureate, it has also had cooperative education and INTERACT programs. The school ceased to exist as an operating school on June 30, 2017, due to low enrollment and the building remains under TDSB possession.
Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute (VRCI) was the first high school built in York Township, the forerunner of the Borough of York. Construction of VRCI began in July 1926 and the cornerstone was laid by Lieutenant-Governor Henry Cockshutt in September 1926. George Evans, the first principal, served from 1926 to 1957. In April 1927, the students moved into the school from temporary quarters in portables at Rawlinson Public School.
In 1997, the school was renamed Vaughan Road Academy, and began offering advanced academic, arts and athletic programs. It began offering the International Baccalaureate program in 1998. Vaughan Road Academy students also began wearing school uniforms as well.
A section of Vaughan Road Academy is used as a community daycare centre as well, even after the school's closure.
The school closed on its 90th anniversary at the end of the 2016–17 school year on June 2017 citing low attendance operating at approximately 20% of its capacity (as compared with the 1970s and the 1980s when the school was overcapacity, reaching capacity again during the mid-2000s and declined since then). Many students who live in the school's catchment area end up attending other nearby high schools such as Forest Hill Collegiate Institute to the east, which is overcapacity, as well as the nearby Oakwood Collegiate Institute to the south, which is absorbing most of the remaining students and programs.