East Gwillimbury, ON, September 8, 2026 — Brian Johns, candidate for Mayor of East Gwillimbury, today set out a plan to advance a public high school in East Gwillimbury, the only municipality in York Region without one.
"Every morning our kids leave their home town to go to high school," said Johns. "We are a community of nearly 45,000 people and growing, and we are the only municipality in York Region without a public high school. That is not a small gap. It affects family life, community identity, and the kind of town we are building."
Johns said the case for a high school here has already been made, and that the job now is to move it forward.
The York Region District School Board currently owns property in East Gwillimbury identified for a high school, and additional high school locations have been identified in community plans. Johns pointed to the Board's own 2024 Development Charge Background Study, which he said demonstrates East Gwillimbury has already reached the enrolment levels associated with a new secondary school. He also noted that education development charges are collected on every new home built in the community to fund growth related school needs.
"The land is identified. The growth is here. The funding mechanism exists and our residents are paying into it with every new home," said Johns. "What has been missing is a community that organizes and makes the case with one voice."
Johns said a high school would deliver more than classrooms. He pointed to the opportunity to co-locate municipal infrastructure with a new school, including a community theatre and sports facilities, and said a high school would attract neighbourhood commercial investment, diversify the Town's tax base, and strengthen community identity in a fast changing municipality.
On how to get there, Johns committed to bringing forward a Committee of Council dedicated to advancing a high school in East Gwillimbury, and to moving a formal Council resolution communicating the Town's position to the York Region District School Board and the Province. He committed to identifying the municipal infrastructure and services that could be co-located with a new school, and to opening a formal, public dialogue with the Board and the Director of Education on building municipal and school infrastructure together.
"I'll be straight about how this works. The Province and the school board make the final decisions, not the Town," said Johns. "But a community that organizes and refuses to let the file go quiet is a community that gets results. That's the work I'm signing up for."
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