School board fencing Chippewa in to keep intruders out?

Will Chippewa Secondary School get fenced in? Tonight, the Near North District School Board's trustees will decide.

Tuesday evening, the Board holds its regular meeting at its offices at 963 Airport Rd. Trustees will vote on whether to go through with installing the fence. Bids have been collected for the work, and tonight’s agenda noted that of the five received, Ed Séguin & Sons Trucking Paving Ltd, put in the lowest, in the amount of $611,000 plus HST.

See related: Security staff hired to keep the homeless out of area high school

A second security guard was added, as well as additional security cameras and secured entrances. With “increasing health and safety concerns at Chippewa,” the Board notes “additional security measures have been required.”

Why such security?

There is a low-barrier homeless shelter across the street from the high school and its clients have been prone to wandering onto the Chippewa Secondary School property. There have been instances of people keeping out of the weather in the school’s entrances while waiting for the shelter to open.

See also: Chippewa addresses nearby warming centre concerns

And: New Northern Pines model to address 'root cause' of homelessness

As for the extra guard and cameras, “these additional security measures have been effective,” the Board’s agenda states, “however, do not address physical security of the external site.”

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.