In Brief

A recent report on the TDSBs capital budget says that the TDSB is over spending. It doesn’t say who is overspending and reveals that the Nelson Mandela Park School in Regent Park went over budget by 8.4 Million and will be opening a year later then originally expected.

  The TDSB is to further discuss the entire report at a meeting on Wednesday. 126 schoolyards are on the chopping block.

Maybe the TDSB isn’t Actually Strapped for Cash

Maybe the TDSB just isn’t being given enough money. Ever think about that? Or are we just going to pretend that inflation don’t exist and that it costs of keeping a 60 year old school open (the age of most of the schools in the TDSB) a hell of a lot more to maintain than a school that was built a decade ago and isn’t overcrowded. Of the four years I went to high school I had one text book where Nunavut was actually on the map, the rest of the text books were published in the 80s or 70s. And I went to a school that’s rated 7th in all the TDSB.

Two of the elementary schools I went to are on that chopping block Wednesday. Ancaster Public School, a school which is frequently on the verge of closure due to it’s small capacity and age and Faywood Elementary, which frequently found itself on the chopping block before the 80s when the principal at the time introduced an arts program, a program which was cut by budget in 2006. Since the loss of the arts program, Faywood has found itself on the chopping block. While the school claims to be an arts school it legally hasn’t been for 5 years.

Ancaster closed for a year and then reopened for 2008/09 school year along with Downsview Secondary School, after it needed renovations. Unlike most other schools that close for renovations, Ancaster and Downsview weren’t falling into disrepair because of aging and neglect, even though Ancaster arguably already had, I never went to Downsview so I couldn’t tell you anything about the conditions. But the reason those schools were closed for a year is because in the summer of 2008 the Sunrise Propane explosion happened and  Downsview had all the windows blown out, while Ancaster essentially had it’s entire top floor covered in debris. The schools closed for the year along with Madonna Catholic Secondary and St. Norbert Catholic School. All four schools are with in walking distance of each other, with St. Norbert and Ancaster directly across the street from one another while Downsview and Madonna are separated by a plaza and an intersection.

Both Downsview Secondary and Madonna Secondary are located less then 600 Meters from the Sunrise propane factory. Ancaster and St. Norbert sit a literal three minute walk from the factory, with Ancaster being two streets down from the factory, you can see the factory from the schoolyard and when the explosion happened Ancaster got the brunt of the damage.

The repairs cost the TDSB and the Catholic school board millions of dollars. The TDSB has never bothered to peruse Sunrise propane to repay the cost of repairing damages to any of the schools. What defense does Sunrise have? “You shouldn’t have built your schools there”. No. Sunrise has no defense beyond it was an accident; so why isn’t the TDSB pressing charges. I’m pretty sure the it’s not to late to file the suit, the TDSB has evidence, Sunrise propane admits it was an accident, so what are they waiting for? Are they waiting for the statute of limitations to run out, you don’t need a law degree to know that is a terrible idea.

And then there’s Faywood. I don’t have fond memories of Faywood, I really hated it there. But that aside, the removal of the arts program really sent the school into decline and I’m not just talking about the attendance numbers. All the teachers who made it what it was are gone, the attendance has declined so much that all the classes are now split grade, the special ed program was only good in the first 3 years of it’s creation but then they let someone who didn’t know what they were doing take it over. The arts program is gone but the signs still up, people who are my parents age (56) went there. What ever renovations have been done have always remained minimal, it’s not wheelchair accessible, everyone who goes there talks about wanting to go somewhere else. It is undeniably past its prime.  

People talk about Faywood like the last good year was 2003. That school essentially died in 2003. A turn over of first time principals drove away the teachers who had been there for 20 years. In the place of the veteran teachers of Faywood, came a school where teachers would teach for a semester and be forgotten by the next year. There is an entire side of what used to be the middle school hallway that is now empty because they can’t fill classrooms. adjacent to that side of the hallway is row upon row of unassigned lockers. When I graduated in the eighth grade, they attempted to deal with the schools declining attendees by dedicating an entire hallway, consisting of 5 classrooms to pre-first grade education; turning them into kindergarten classrooms. The school struggles to fill those now.  

The problem with Faywood isn’t the neighborhood, the school has been there for 80+ years. The problem with Faywood isn’t Dublin or C.H. Best or any other nearby school; Dublin and C.H. Best and any other school in the TDSB for that matter have an overcrowding problem. The problem with Faywood isn’t with the kids, it’s not with the parents, it’s not even the constant turn over of teachers or the fact that the school itself predates North York School Boards amalgamation with the TDSB.

The problem with Faywood has, is the same problem that all schools in the TDSB have. No one seems to know how to manage old schools, no one is willing to update old schools and no one is willing to admit that old schools don’t fall behind that of new schools. No one is willing to face the problems that amalgamation has given us and this isn’t limited to the TDSB. While Faywood may be a perfect example of this, given that there is still signage that claim Faywood belongs to the no longer existent North York District School Board, the fact is, Faywood isn’t the only school that has been failed by the school board, and the TDSB isn’t the only school board that has been failed by the province.

All the schools that are were once Etobicoke District Schools, formally North York, East York, Scarborough, York and those that were deemed “Metropolitan Toronto” district, are all schools that the TDSB did not have to deal with before 1988. Those 7 boards amalgamated under the Fewer School Boards Act (Bill 104). In preparation of amalgamation, the TDSB closed 92 of it’s 164 schools. When Bill 104 came into play, the TDSB was expected to handle 600 and 300,000 students, and they were expected to do it on the same budget as they had when they were only running 164 schools. The fewer schools act also took the money that property tax gave the school board. The TDSV had to fight to get more money and it wasn’t easy to get the 2 Billion dollar budget they have today, that hasn’t been adjusted in more then a decade.

Between Bill 104 and today, the TDSB has been cut down from 600 schools to 558 schools. I don’t need to tell you that Toronto’s population has grown since 1988.

There are things the TDSB can do to raise money, like charging fees for parking in a school parking lot or renting out space more often then it already does. The option of taking Sunrise to court for damages would alleviate the burden a little and having co-op programs where students who want to work in the construction field renovate crumbling schools might be a good idea. But those things combined would only cut the most minimal amount of pressure from the TDSBs back. 

There’s a reason the TDSB keeps cutting back. Parts of the TDSB are mismanaged but it certainly is not the only force at work. There is no possible way that a school, especially a school in one of Toronto’s poorest areas, is bankrupting the TDSB and I think who ever wrote that report knows its bullshit, they’re just waiting for Regent Park to be gentrified.

The TDSB is underfunded. It has been cheated out of funds, it’s had the rug pulled out from under its feet, its expected to handle much more then the resources provided can handle. There is no amount of fund raising an individual school board can do that will make up for the funds it is being deprived of. Every single extracurricular program in the TDSB school could be cut, there will still be no way to cover operating costs, even if you sell off parts of schools. Cutting back pensions won’t do anyone any good, closing schools will just cause more overcrowding.

There is only one solution to solving the TDSBs budget messes and that is to get the Ontario government to take responsibility.

In Brief

While this years fresh faced children were playing in the summer sun, the teachers and the Provincial Ontario government were deadlocked inside a room over union contracts. The Liberal government wants to freeze teachers wages and cut benefits, in hopes of balancing the $15-Billion dollar deflect Ontario has accumulated from previous governments who refused to raise taxes but continued to spend. 

The negotiations took a turn for the worst in July and continued along a very destructive path in August with the September deadline looming overhead. As a result of the short dated deadline, the Liberal government was looking for a quick solution rather then remain at the bargaining table.

Come September, the deadline had not been met and teachers returned back to classrooms while unions remained at the bargaining table.

Two weeks into September and no solution has been met for the 191,000 teachers involved; now Premier McGuinty is looking to impose a legislation called Bill 115. A bill of cuts and pay freezes, while revoking the teachers right to protest.

High school and elementary teachers across Ontario are now being asked end all extracurricular activities as of Wednesday and wear all black in protest. They are asked not to attend Monday staff meetings.

Get Your Ass In My Time Machine- We’re Going On a Feildtrip

In 1997, similar clauses in Bill 160 forced teachers to leave the bargaining table and empty their classrooms. They whispered discreetly, as teachers often do for the sake of the children’s unbiased innocence, “enough is enough”. Under the Harris government, the teachers of Ontario took to the streets, striking against a bill that would reduce education spending, raise class sizes and take rights from unions. The children of the ‘97 year would be left with a two week snow day in October, and with school daycares being held in churches we learnt nothing in our empty classrooms.

Meanwhile on Queens Park, rooms were filled to the brim with teachers and politicians were talking a lot but saying nothing of value. The politicians were looking to reduce a deflect left by previous governments (this sounds so familiar, right?), and the teachers were looking to make a living. Eventually the teachers settled on a meager plan where no one won and no one raised taxes because that would be an unpopular decision that makes sense and everyone knows elections are popularity contests.

And now here we are fifteen years later, no smarter, with more demands from the government who still wants to balance that deflect without raising taxes and unions who clearly just want fair pay, decent benefits, the right to negotiate and to keep the Ontario school system in the worlds top rankings.

It’s fair to say that this whole ordeal (both in 2012 and 1997) has put teachers, parents and students in a horrible position. The teachers clearly don’t want to strike which is why those extracurricular activities that parents rely on to keep their kids well rounded and out of trouble after school, are the first to go. The teachers want what’s best for their kids but they also have mortgages/rent, utility bills, families to feed, student loans from those university/college classes that certify one to become a teacher and all those other bills people pay.

Being a teacher is an incredibly thankless job. Most teachers are going to be teachers for a lot longer then the McGuinty government is going to be in power.

We need to ask ourselves, are we going to pressure history to repeat itself; keep in mind that a lot of  Bill 160 was implemented and didn’t even make a dent in the deflect. Or are we going to stop this cycle from repeating itself again and say if you want to balance the deflect, raise taxes, stop funneling money to the corporate sector, and do a better job negotiating with the federal government so they stop loading financial burdens onto the province. We can’t let the province act like a schoolyard bully to the teachers.

In Brief

In a memo being passed around Queens Park today, our School Trustees and MPs are being told that if the teachers unions can not come to agreements with the province and schools boards it will be up to the school board to pay teachers extra money.

Surprised But Not Too Surprised

Ontario has a long history of just handing the most basic responsibilities to their municipalities at whim and saying “Here, it’s your problem now”. Biggest example, Toronto Public Housing; in the 90s the government panicked because the wait list for public housing was years long and the wait list for repairs to units that need repairing was years long and the Ontario government decided to slowly scapegoat it, putting all the responsibility on Toronto. The most ongoing example is the TTC, we aren’t subsidized as much as say Vancouver or even YRT/VIVA, yet we have high ridership and more maintenance costs. The Ontario government wanted to get into the business of selling transit to other places so they built a line of which needed special rails and cars and was not compatible with LRTs, subways or monorails and by design are very hard to maintain and are overly expensive for the quality you get from them; they called this the Scarborough RT. We all know how that worked out. No, the government pays no part for their failed experiment.

So it couldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the government would like to load the costs of something onto a municipality.

In this situation the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is getting screwed over the hardest. The TDSB just underwent a different contract agreement with the city due to Mayor Rob Fords obsession with the number ten. The school board received an across the line 10% cut like the rest of Toronto’s services and in the end decided to close a few schools, cut after school programs and eliminate most of (in the case of some schools entirely) their special ed programs. There is nothing left to cut from the TDSB, we are to the point where none of the textbooks I was ever assigned through out high school listed Nunavut as a territory.

There is nothing left of the TDSB, at the beginning of every school year we pay 70$ to cover activities which really should have funding from the school, but the school doesn’t even have money for decent overhead projectors and I’m talking about a school that’s listed 7th in all of Toronto.

A Two Tiered System

The other problem with Ontario’s school system is that on top of funding a public system, we are also funding a private system. While the 12 Catholic School Trustees did not receive the memo which the rest of Ontario’s School Trustees received, the Catholic System is very much a publicly funded one.

This is how out of date the provincial government has allowed our school boards to become and it’s costing us. Every other province in Canada has cut their ties with the two tiered “Catholic” “Public/historically Protestant” system. The reason for the two tiered system was that one system was an incentive to French Canadians (Catholic) and the other was for Anglo Canadians (Protestant) and the incentive wasn’t completely religious; Catholic schools were purely French speaking and Protestant was purely English speaking. Of course, the need for a purely French or a purely English school no longer the reasoning behind a two tiered Catholic-Public system, as there are public French emergence schools and most Catholic schools are like the public schools where it’s all English with a mandatory French class. The need for this two tiered system as the rest of Canada has realized, the last province to become single tiered being Newfoundland and Labrador in 1999, is no longer necessary and it’s draining the funds from public schools. Schools which openly accept GSAs to the point that it didn’t need to be legislated in.

There has not been a single debate about the school system where cutting off the Catholic system from public funds hasn’t been a topic of discussion and considering that the ever growing public school system has ever growing class sizes, often having 30 kids and over, the Catholic school class sizes tend to range from 22-25 sometimes lower, depending on the area. Meaning the Catholic system has more access to one on one help for their students and as the Fraser institute would suggest this has kids achieving more while kids in the overcrowded public system are left to fend for ourselves.

Even though most Catholic schools don’t require one to be Catholic when attending it’s kind of awkward attending a Catholic school if you aren’t Catholic.

What it comes down to at the end of the day, when we’re looking at cutting things is that we have two systems; an over crowded one which welcomes all, and a less crowded one who haven’t been so open to following the rules that Canadian society asks of our school public school system.

And if we need to pass Bill 13 becuase you don’t want to give kids in the LGBQ, Trans*, Intersex, and Gender Queer community a safe space, then you have a problem because I don’t want my tax money going to to a school that still maintains the right to allow certain student run clubs not to exist. And if I’m paying so someone else can have access to a school system where teachers aren’t overwhelmed with 30+ students, fine, but I want access to that system too and I want to get it without compromising my personal religious beliefs or lack thereof. 

Maybe it’s time we looked at combining the Catholic and Public school system because either way we’re still paying for it and either way their still under the same contract and maybe this way classes will be less overcrowded and we can save a few bucks and maybe even improve the school system. 

But that won’t happen because instead of looking at that, we’re just going to load more debt onto our public schools; both Catholic and Public.

Today the teachers of the TDSB in our fair city hit the streets in Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square. Teachers are protesting the 10% in cuts that the hamburger expert Rob Ford has imposed across the board of all Toronto services…including the Toronto District School Board.

School boards across Ontario are already struggling to meet the need of our future on a budget stretched tight as is. The cut backs to the already over crowded system, includes shrinking a special ed program that is already overwhelmed to the point at which, if you have a sever learning disability (one to the point at which a student may need a computer or a trained assistant) they are forced to go to a private school; private schools which parents often struggle to afford (side note: If I were to list to you all of the kids I have met in special ed who had to leave the public school system due to bad support, you’d have a two sided list), $50.8 million in staff cuts and cafeteria programs.