Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School

Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School and Regional Arts Centre
Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School and Regional Arts Centre
	Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School in the former West Park S.S. building.
Address
	1515 Bloor Street West; Roncesvalles, Toronto, Ontario, M6P 1A3; Canada
Coordinates	43°39′23″N 79°27′04″W
Information
Former name	St. Joseph High School (1880-1957); St. Joseph Commercial School (1957-1985); Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School (1985-1988); Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic Secondary School (1986-1988)West Park Secondary School
School type	Bill 30 Catholic High school; Art school
Motto	Growth Through FaithCongregavit nos in unum Christi amor; (The love of Christ has gathered us together into one)
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic; (Sisters of St. Joseph)
Established	1880 (St. Joseph Commercial School); 1986 (Bishop Francis Marrocco High School)
School board	Toronto Catholic District School Board; (Metropolitan Separate School Board)
Superintendent	John Wujeck; Area 5
Area trustee	Daniel Di Giogrio; Ward 10
School number	545 / 691798;
Principal	Laila Velocci
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	750 (2017-18)
Color(s)	Royal Blue and White
Slogan	Create. Collaborate. Innovate.; To Think. To Pray. To Serve.
Team name	Marrocco/Merton Royals
Website

Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School, officially Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School and Regional Arts Centre (referred to known as The Regional Arts School @ Marrocco, BMTMCSS, Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton, or simply Marrocco/Merton) is a Catholic secondary school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, formerly the Metropolitan Separate School Board and serves about 1000 students in grades 9 to 12.

The school is a merger of two existing high schools. It was founded in 1880 as St. Joseph's Commercial School by the Sisters of St. Joseph and was renamed to Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School in honour of the American monk Thomas Merton and in 1986, the present school, Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic Secondary School was established, though the latter was named after Auxiliary Bishop Francis Marrocco and in 1988, the two schools merged. The present high school is housed in the former West Park Secondary School, opened in 1968 by the Toronto Board of Education, currently owned by the Toronto District School Board in which the campus is leased since 1988.[1] The motto for Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton is "Growth Through Faith"

History

One of the oldest catholic secondary schools in Toronto, Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton began as two schools. In 1880, the Sisters of St. Joseph established St. Joseph's High School, whose roots dated back to 1854 with the founding of St. Joseph's Academy for Young Ladies.[2] The school was renamed to St. Joseph Commercial School as an all-girls commercial school in the Cabbagetown area in 1957.

From the beginning, this school was a satellite campus of St. Joseph College Wellesley for its purpose to teach younger women secretarial skills. Grades 9 and 10 were taught in the Linden building while Grades 11 and 12 were assigned to the Sacre Coeur school on Sherbourne although the students in these grades operated under the SJCS-Wellesley banner. After 1975, the school began to admit male students and the St. Joseph Commercial became a co-educational School. As a result, the school began to search for a new name and in 1985, St. Joseph Commercial was formally renamed again to Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School.

The present day school, known as Bishop Francis Marrocco was officially established by the Metropolitan Separate School Board on September 2, 1986 using the facilities of Richard W. Scott Catholic Elementary School in the St. Clair/Dufferin area. The namesake, Francis Marrocco was a Toronto Auxiliary Bishop of Italian descent who worked with Archbishop Pocock in the Archdiocese of Toronto's great efforts in the 1960s to extend the availability of Roman Catholic secondary education and was known for helping immigrants adjust to their new life in Canada.[1]

The Marrocco and Merton schools were consolidated in September 1988 in the former West Park Secondary School in the Bloor/Dundas area, which was closed due to low enrollment and the property was ceded over to the MSSB as the new site of the school. The original school consisted of Michael Monk as the first principal, 250 Marrocco students, 500 Merton students and 350 new grade 9 Marrocco/Merton students totaling to 1100 students.

The arts program began in 2004 and the Arts and Culture High Skills program was launched in 2010.

Possible closure or relocation

In 2017, Choice Properties REIT proposed to redevelop the property adjacent to the West Park site, although a replacement school is not ruled out.[3] The TDSB, the owner of the West Park property, proposed that the former school site is to be redeveloped into a residential property.[4]

Overview

The school has a diverse community of Portuguese, Central American, Polish, Lithuanian and Filipino descent.[1] It offers a diverse curriculum for students who want to pursue post-secondary education, apprenticeships and trades and gain skills for the world of work. A wide range of athletics (Marrocco/Merton Royals) and extra-curricular activities such as school band, dramatic productions, recording studio, video production, automotive competitions. It also offers special ESL (English as a Second Language) classes.[5][1]

As an inner city high school, Marrocco-Merton's facility was built in 1968 as West Park Vocational School, designed by Abram and Ingleson Architects as a four-storey high school features a double gymnasium, a tailoring shop, a chapel, an olympic-size swimming pool, a 700-seat amphitheatre-style auditorium, and a football/soccer field on top of a parking garage.[1]

Feeder Schools

St. Helen's Catholic Elementary School
Holy Family Catholic Elementary School
St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School
St. Rita Catholic Elementary School
James Culnan Catholic School
St. Mary of the Angels

References

Grip, Robert and Young, Gary TWO MERTON SCHOOLS - Thomas Merton Center
http://www.cchahistory.ca/journal/CCHA2006/Smyth.htm
Pelley, Lauren (June 14, 2017). "Redevelopment of 40,000 square metre 'eyesore' could transform Dundas and Bloor". CBC News. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
"Meeting Notice, TLC Board meeting, Tuesday November 20, 2018" (PDF). Toronto Lands Corporation. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
Come to Marrocco Merton - The Regional Arts School at Marrocco

Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School. Toronto Catholic District School Board. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[TMHS-1] Grip, Robert and Young, Gary TWO MERTON SCHOOLS - Thomas Merton Center

[2] ttp://www.cchahistory.ca/journal/CCHA2006/Smyth.htm

[3] Pelley, Lauren (June 14, 2017). "Redevelopment of 40,000 square metre 'eyesore' could transform Dundas and Bloor". CBC News. Retrieved March 11, 2018.

[4] "Meeting Notice, TLC Board meeting, Tuesday November 20, 2018" (PDF). Toronto Lands Corporation. Retrieved December 10, 2019.

[5] Come to Marrocco Merton - The Regional Arts School at Marrocco

Secondary education in Toronto
Anglophone public
Secular Toronto District School Board	A. Y. Jackson Agincourt Albert Campbell Alderwood† Avondale ASE 1 Bendale* Birchmount Park Bloor Bickford Park* Brockton* Burnhamthorpe C. W. Jefferys CALC (Parkview) Cedarbrae Central Etobicoke Central Technical Central Toronto City Contact Danforth David and Mary Thomson Delphi Don Mills Downsview Dr Norman Bethune Drewry Earl Haig East York EYASS Eastdale Emery Etobicoke ESA (Royal York) EYRAC Forest Hill Frank Oke George Harvey George S. Henry Georges Vanier Greenwood Harbord Heydon Park Humberside Humbergrove* Inglenook Jarvis John Polanyi Keiller Mackay† Kingsmill* Kipling L'Amoreaux Lakeshore (New Toronto) Lakeview* Lawrence Park Leaside Lester B. Pearson Lewis S. Beattie* Malvern Maplewood Marc Garneau Martingrove Midland* Monarch Park Nelson A. Boylen* Newtonbrook Native Learning Native Learning East North Albion North Toronto Northern Northview Heights Oakwood Oasis Parkdale Parkview R. H. King Richview Riverdale Rosedale Heights Runnymede Scarborough Centre Scarlett Heights* SEE SLE SEED Silverthorn Sir John A. Macdonald Sir Oliver Mowat Sir Robert L. Borden* Sir Wilfrid Laurier Sir William Osler South East Stephen Leacock Subway Academy I Subway Academy II Student School Tabor Park* Thistletown Timothy Eaton† Ursula Franklin Vaughan Road* Victoria Park Vincent Massey* W. A. Porter West Hill West Humber West Park* Western Weston Westview Wexford William Lyon Mackenzie Winston Churchill West End Woburn Yorkdale York Humber (Emmett) York Humber (Humber Blvd.)* York Memorial York Mills
Separate Toronto Catholic District School Board	A.P.P.L.E Bishop Allen Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Brebeuf Brother Edmund Rice† Cardinal Carter Chaminade Dante Alighieri Don Bosco* Father Henry Carr (Marian Academy) Father Henry Carr (Kipling)† Father John Redmond Francis Libermann James Cardinal McGuigan Loretto Loretto Abbey Madonna Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School Mary Ward Michael Power/St. Joseph Monsignor Fraser Monsignor Percy Johnson Neil McNeil Notre Dame Regina Pacis* Senator O'Connor St. Basil-the-Great St. Joan of Arc St. John Henry Newman St. John Paul II St. Joseph's St. Joseph's Morrow Park St. Mary St. Michael's Choir St. Mother Teresa St. Oscar Romero St. Patrick
Francophone public
Secular Conseil scolaire Viamonde	Étienne-Brûlé Le Collège français Toronto Ouest
Separate Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir	Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel Père-Philippe-Lamarche Saint-Frère-André
Independent/private
Non-denominational	A.R.S. Armenian Abelard Arrowsmith Bayview Glen Beach Bond Branksome Brighton Crescent Crestwood Preparatory Dragon Greenwood Halton Hudson Linden Lycée Français Metropolitan Preparatory Nile Toronto French Toronto Prep UTS Upper Canada WillowWood York
Religious	Bialik Hebrew Bishop Strachan Bnei Akiva Crawford Adventist De La Salle Havergal Hawthorn Mariyah Islamic Netivot HaTorah North Toronto Christian Royal St. George's St. Clement's St. Michael's Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Tiferes Bais Yaakov Whitefield Christian
Italics indicates a secondary institution that operates as an alternative school or as an adult secondary school. (*) - Denotes closed or core holding school retained ownership by the school board that is not currently used as an operating school. (i.e. vacant, administrative holding, or a closed school that is leased out to a tenant). (†) - Denotes closed school demolished or sold off.