TORONTO — A partnership between Toronto school leaders and city officials will result in the former J.T. Karaffa Elementary School becoming a recreation center for use year-round by residents of all ages.

School officials met recently with Mayor John Parker to finalize the transfer of the school building to the city for $1.

Superintendent Maureen Taggart said the move was delayed following the discovery that all of the school district’s buildings sit on one parcel, but that detail has been worked out.

Jay Foster, president of the Toronto city school board, said the deal involves the school district assuming maintenance of the building’s grounds while “the building, its contents and management all fall under the city recreation board.”

Foster, who with George Dobbs represents the school board on the five-member recreation board, said when plans were made to create a wing at the Toronto Junior-Senior High School for the school district’s elementary pupils, they didn’t include razing the old elementary school, which once served junior high students.

“It was never our intention to demolish it. We knew it was built in 1982 to be here for the foreseeable future,” he said.

With the 42,281-square-foot wing completed, pupils and staff were moved into the new elementary school earlier this year.

Since then Rod Henry, the city’s building maintenance and recreation director, and city crews set about renovating the building, and it hasn’t taken long for various groups to use it.

Henry said sinks and faucets in the school’s home economics classroom have been updated, a handicap-accessible restroom added and new flooring installed in rooms upstairs eyed for meetings.

He added LED lighting has been added to the former band room, which has been divided into areas used for fitness and yoga classes taught by private instructors.

“They meet seven days a week and had a lot of people until the center had to be closed because of the coronavirus,” Henry said.

He said three senior citizens groups had met downstairs and the city had been taking reservations for private parties to be held in the school’s spacious commons area.

Parker said residents also had been taking laps around the school’s gym for exercise.

He said once government orders restricting public gatherings are lifted, the center will reopen.

The mayor said there also are plans to move some city offices into the building’s first floor.

He said they won’t include the city’s police department, which benefits from the security and ample parking space at the Toronto City Building, or the water department.

Henry noted until recently senior groups and the city’s youth basketball league had been using the gym of the former Roosevelt School. Located near Findley Street, it was another former school facility repurposed by the city for use as a recreation center.

But Henry said the building lacks the space available at Karaffa as well as air conditioning, a feature that will enable the center to operate through the summer.

“With Karaffa, we’re able to expand a lot more. There’s a lot more potential,” he said, adding, “It can be a really nice place. It will be exciting to see what it can be for the community.”

Foster said he and other school officials were optimistic that the city would put the former school to good use.

“Working with the city in the past, we’ve always had good outcomes,” he said.

Parker said of the recent collaboration, “It was a smooth transition. It’s been great working with the school district.”