Mackay Centre, Layton Schools get new home in NDG

The English Montreal School Board has decided on a site inNDGfor its new, specialized schools for children with disabilities.

The board plans to build the new facilityto house the Mackay Centre and Philip E. LaytonSchoolson Terrebonne Avenue, near Madison Avenue.

The schools are the only English facilities of their kind in the province. They share one cramped building in Montreal, built in the 1960s.

The land is part of the property of the former Somerled Elementary School, which closed in 2000.

The French-language board, La Commission Scolaire de Montral, opened a primary school in the building. But the EMSB held on to a large portion of greenspace on the site.

"We had many opportunities to sell this land," said EMSB chairwoman Angela Mancini in a communiqu. "I am very glad that we resisted the temptation," she said.

The 9,000-square-metre building will include a swimming facility, a sensory stimulation room, and larger classrooms and hallways.

"If they're not here, they're at home, they have no place to go," said Joanne Charron, chairwoman of the Mackay Centre governing board. Her son has cerebral palsy and is a former student of the Mackay Centre.

"I don't know how to put it in words. I feel like I'm being carried in the wind," she said.

The province's Ministry of Education is covering $21.9 million of the $23.4 million budgeted to complete the project.

The goal is to have the new facility ready for the 2018-19 school year.

The Mackay Centre educates children with physical disabilities, students who are deaf, and students with communication disorders.

P.E. Layton serves students who are blind and who may also have physical or intellectual disabilities.

• English schools for children with disabilities get $22M for new facility