Monarch Park Collegiate

Coordinates: 43°40′46″N 79°19′22″W / 43.67944°N 79.32278°W / 43.67944; -79.32278

Monarch Collegiate Institute
Location
Toronto, Ontario, M4J 1G6, Canada
Information
School number	5535
School board	Toronto District School Board
Superintendent	Jill Worthy
Area trustee	Cathy Dandy
Principal	Cynthia Abernethy
Vice Principals	Steve Yee, Gillian Gibbons
Administrator	Ondina Veiga, Connie Cinotti
School type	High school
Grades	9-12
Language	English
Area	Danforth Avenue and Gerrard Street East on Coxwell Avenue
Team name	Lions
Colours	Green, White and Gold
Founded	1964
Enrolment	942 (Fall 2011)
Homepage	http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/monarch/

Monarch Park Collegiate (MPC) (formerly known as Monarch Park Secondary School) is a high school located near the intersection of Coxwell Avenue and Danforth Avenue in Toronto, Canada. MPC offers a complete semestered program, open for limited out-of-district student enrollment. Monarch Park Collegiate is a 'Global School' that embraces a philosophy on global education, focusing on human rights education, peace education, international development and environmentalism. The staff and students are from over 70 different countries and speak almost as many languages.

Monarch Park Collegiate was the first high school built in Toronto after 1937. Construction of the school began in March 1964, and was completed by late August at a cost of $3,751,654.27. In 1966 a third story was added at a cost of $1,245,210.

In terms of facilities, the large group instruction room was constructed to allow topics to be presented to approximately 150 and also greatly reduced repetition of the same material.

The library, located in the same wing of the school, was constructed with a mezzanine which is capable of seating about 80 students. This mezzanine was constructed so that students could study and be in easy reach of the library's research books and other material. The auditorium, located in the same wing, was equipped with excellent lighting and acoustics system.

The eastern wing was constructed with a modern swimming pool, measuring 75' × 35' and varying in depth from 3' to 9½' lined on one side by a gallery. In the summer of 2011 the pool area underwent renovations after being temporarily closed the year before. During the 2009-2010 school year NDP party leader Jack Layton visited the school during an effort to help keep it open to the students and public.

The school that would later be known as College Francais was founded here in 1979, before being moved to Jarvis Collegiate in 1981.

Monarch Park Collegiate is an International Baccalaureate World School (2007). It presently offers the IB Prep program (Grades 9 and 10) and the IB Diploma Programme (Grades 11 and 12) which started in September 2008. The current head of the department is John Au.

The official mascot is the Monarch Park Lion.

MPC also has relatively new boys' rugby, football, and baseball teams.

The school has also been featured in popular culture in the 1999 drama The Virgin Suicides directed by Sofia Coppola.

Kenya Program

This was a program in Canada, where Monarch Park Collegiate partnered with Toronto-based Free the Children (FTC). Thirteen students who were in the midst of studying courses on leadership, international development, human rights education and issues related to Africa and the developing world, traveled to Kenya In November 2006. There, for a month, students worked with the peoples of the Masai Mara building schools, planting trees, and teaching English.

Two years later, 13 Monarch Park students traveled to Kenya again, for 25 days. After returning to Toronto, students from both trips visited various schools within the GTA as Free the Children Ambassadors, telling their stories and urging students to get involved.

Monarch Park has continued to be one of the top contributing high schools to FTC, and was featured in chapter 7 of the organizations book, Me to We. White, Gold, Green

Notable alumni

• Laura DiBattista - former News Anchor/Reporter (1979)
• Tom Jakobek - former Toronto municipal politician (1970)
• Alan Park - Comedian/Royal Canadian Air Farce (1980)
• Glen Metropolit - NHL Hockey Player - Plays for the Montreal Canadiens (1990s)

External links

• Official Website