Toronto school board staff have recommended closing West Toronto Collegiate and will decide by June whether to propose it be sold or kept for adult learning.

Despite pleas from the community at a packed public meeting Wednesday night, Darryl Sage, the board’s director of strategy, would not commit to keeping the modern, wheelchair-friendly building on 3 hectares of land near College St. and Lansdowne Ave. — rather than recommend it be sold to reduce the board’s capital deficit.

West Toronto faces closure because enrolment has plunged to 96 in a school built for 1,000.

An Accommodation Review Committee of parents, school staff and community members recommended the school close for regular students this June but stay open for adult learning and English as a second language. More than 30 ESL students marched into the meeting at West Toronto holding signs urging the school be kept open to serve their needs.

“We love this school and we live nearby; we need to keep it open for our programs,” said Rigzin Paldon, who came to Canada from Tibet two years ago. Nearly 6,000 Tibetans live in the area and some have never been to school, said Paldon’s teacher, Sheryl Boswell.

“They all need skills training in order to get jobs. We need the school open for adult learning.”

But keeping the school open would yield little financial gain to a school board strapped for cash.

Trustees Maria Rodrigues, Irene Atkinson and Chris Bolton told the meeting they oppose selling the school, half of whose students have special needs. The committee recommended disabled students be given another year to find alternate programs, but staff argued it is better for special education students to be in schools where they can integrate with others, such as Oakwood Collegiate, which would have to be renovated to make it accessible.

“How much time and money would that cost?” said Atkinson. “This is crazy. No other school is as wheelchair-accessible as West Toronto. It has elevators, special lifts in the pool for disabled students and accessible washrooms. Why would we sell it?”

With young families moving to the 905, the school catchment area has only about 350 teenagers, and most choose to go to other high schools.

But former student Steve Barbosa said the school board never did enough to make West Toronto safe and attractive.

“When a kid pulled a knife, when a kid got pepper sprayed, when they found needles in the bleachers, they just pulled out the bleachers but nothing got done. They gave up on us,” he said.

A board committee will hear public deputations about the school April 12.

The TDSB has informed trustees of the proposed second batch of schools that should get the pricey, coveted all-day kindergarten program.

But when school trustee Chris Bolton saw that the high-needs Ryerson Community School in his ward wasn’t on it, he arranged a private swap with another trustee.

“The whole purposed of all-day kindergarten is to level the playing field,” said Bolton, who was formerly the principal of the school just south of Kensington Market, which has a high proportion of students who live in subsidized housing and for whom English is not their first language.

“I would argue that the 110 model schools should get it before anyone else,” he said, referring to a list of schools that TDSB has designated as most in need using its Learning Opportunities Index, which scores school populations on such factors as income level, single-parent households and renters.

The full-day learning program kicks off this September, and the province has promised that all of Ontario’s primary schools will have it by the 2015-2016 school year. What was emailed to trustees on Friday evening was a list of 26 schools that will get all-day kindergarten in September 2011.

After receiving the list on Friday evening, Bolton sat down and noted each school’s LOI rating. There were a number of schools from low-income areas on it, like Driftwood P.S. and Galloway Rd. PS. But although Ryerson is the 22nd most needy on the TDSB’s list of hundreds of elementary schools, it had lost out to schools like Humber Valley Village, which is number 460, and Cedarvale, which is 449.

So, Bolton picked up the phone and called Sheila Cary-Meagher, trustee for Ward 16, covering part of East York south to the Beaches. Before he even asked, she offered to give him the all-day kindergarten program that had been allotted to Presteign Heights, at St. Clair and O’Connor.

“I had already had a conversation with my superintendent that I didn’t want the program yet,” said Cary-Meagher on Saturday. This September, Presteign Heights is getting a new extended French program in Grade Four. Next year, there will be a Grade Five extended French class, too. Extended French will likely bring in students from outside of Presteign’s regular catchment area, so Cary-Meagher thinks that the addition of all-day kindergarten at the same time would be too rapid of a population growth.

Adding all-day kindergarten to Presteign next year might mean something every parent and educator despises: portables.

As well, Cary-Meagher agrees with Bolton that Ryerson would be better off getting the program sooner. “They really need it,” she said, noting the high level of parent and grandparent involvement at Presteign.

Although both trustees think the move makes sense, it has to be approved by TDSB head Chris Spence and Penny Musin, associate director of education. Cary-Meagher doesn’t anticipate resistance, and Bolton won’t abide by any.

“I don’t think they can let this go,” he said.

Penny Mustin, deputy director of operations for the TDSB, said that the list is a proposal that the province must approve. The Ministry of Education directed school boards to introduce all-day kindergarten earliest at schools without on-site child care: first, to offer full-day opportunities to parents and students that don’t yet have any, and second, so as not to leave daycares scrambling for bodies and revenue.

Ryerson has a daycare on site, but Mustin said she’s happy to review Bolton and Cary-Meagher’s proposed switch. “I think it’s really important to go back and have a look,” she said. “We want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”