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Equinox hosts only one in-person Open House each school year. The next in-person Open House will be held on Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 from 6 pm to 7 pm. All are welcome to attend, including children. No registration is required to participate. The event starts with a formal presentation in the gym by staff, followed by school tours.
Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate individual personal tours due to staff time constraints and to maintain the integrity of the program and privacy of our students. If you would like to learn more about Equinox in the meantime, please watch the video below.
A new universal online application form and admissions process for all TDSB elementary alternative schools was launched last January 2023 for the 2023-2024 school year. TDSB is currently refining that process for the upcoming 2024-2025 school admissions. The board will release the updated process details, including important dates for admissions, by January 2024. Please be patient as everyone is learning the new refined admissions system together.
At this time, TDSB staff have not shared if the 2024-2025 equity priority admissions groups are being adjusted or not. Below is the 2023-2024 equity priority admissions groups for reference only.
*TDSB’s Sibling Policy only gives priority admissions. It does not guarantee placement. This means a sibling of an existing enrolled student will be given a spot only if one is available in their specific grade. If no spot is available, the sibling may not attend the school. The sibling will need to reapply the following school year.
Applicants may apply to a limited number of elementary alternative schools using the same universal online application form located on the TDSB website. Admission selection is random and done using a third-party Board approved software (i.e. a computer, NOT a person).
After March enrolment at TDSB elementary alternative schools becomes frozen. This is now standard practice across the Board for all schools which are not designated local home schools, including special interest programs, academies, etc. This is done to reduce student movement as much as possible between TDSB schools after the Board has completed its staff allocations and class breakdowns for the upcoming school year for all of its 583 schools. Unfortunately, student movement not only impacts those students choosing to switch schools, but also those who do not move.
For example, if a student turns down a spot after March, that decision currently impacts only two schools – the elementary alternative school (like Equinox) and the local designated home school the student is choosing to attend instead. If an elementary alternative school accepted another student after March from another school it would add a third school into the mix. Thus, further increasing student movement across the Board and increasing the ripple effect on staffing allocations, class breakdowns, etc. for all the schools involved in those student switches. A shift of just one student may be enough to tip a school to gain or loose a teacher and/or cause new class breakdowns when TDSB conducts its annual board-wide reorganization each fall. That annual fall review and board-wide reorganization process ensures TDSB’s finite resources (as specified and financed by the Ontario Ministry of Education) goes to where students actually show-up each September vs. where the Board predicted the previous Spring. For example, in a board this size, if less than 1% of students switch schools after allocations are completed in the Spring that is approx. 2,350 students.
Please note, TDSB has not yet informed elementary alternative schools exactly how many new students they may accept for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year per each grade. The number of students accepted varies year to year and is determined by TDSB head office. Generally, Equinox accepts approx. 20 JK students and only a handful of students spread across grades SK-8.
If language or other barriers make the application process challenging for your family or anyone you may know, please reach out to the Equinox school administration so they may try to help: equinox@tdsb.on.ca
Equinox is a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) elementary alternative school. As a publicly funded school, it is open to anyone residing in Toronto and free to attend. As an “out-of-area” status school (formally known as “optional attendance”), student transportation to/from the school is not funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education, and thereby not covered by the school board.
For more information about the school, please click the button below or visit the TDSB site, and look under Equinox: http://www.tdsb.on.ca
Thanks for visiting. This website is a work in progress, updated by Equinox community volunteers.