Jackman Avenue Public School is classified as a “closed” school by the Toronto District School Board—meaning that it has no space whatsoever for kids who live outside the area bound by Danforth, Fulton, the DVP and Carlaw. Its allure is partly based on its high test scores. It also has a French immersion program, highly coveted by middle-class parents raised in the Trudeau era. Those same parents are active in Jackman’s life, raising scads of money for projects like the school’s green roof, installed in 2006 at a cost of more than $76,000.

The overheated housing market in the area is directly attributable to the school’s reputation. One agent, Bryen Daly, told me about a client who lost half a dozen Jackman bidding wars. In one instance, a home on Carlaw went up for sale at $779,000. Daly’s clients bid $850,000, which he thought was excessive, and he made them sign a document stating that he’d advised them not to do so. The house sold for $920,000. (They’ve since started looking in other neighbourhoods.)

When Toula and Ken Rubello’s marriage fell apart, the one thing they agreed on was that they had to keep their son, Theodore, in Jackman. If Toula wanted to stay in the school’s catchment area, she’d be lucky to buy a house for less than $600,000. She found another way to beat everyone to the punch. One weekday afternoon, her agent spotted a listing that had been uploaded to the MLS system by the seller’s realtor just hours earlier, at around 11:30 a.m. “He called me right away. I went to see it at 3:20. I picked up the kids from school, came home and signed the offer. It was submitted by four o’clock.” She met the asking price ($449,900) with an unconditional offer—no home inspection, no sticking points—and was surprised when it was accepted that night. The house was on the market for fewer than 10 hours.

The crowding of Jackman school has inspired other desperate measures, including a brisk trade in forged addresses. One couple successfully snuck their two children through Jackman while living in Cabbage­town, all the way to Grade 6 graduation. Other parents borrow the addresses of friends or family within Jackman’s catchment area to register their kids. A mother I spoke to described how she was approached by a work colleague with a request to borrow her address. Then there was the Craigslist posting a year ago that offered cash in exchange for use of a Jackman-area address and for the concomitant mail-collection services.