Monthly Archives: September 2015

Alberta public schools face deferred maintenance backlogs too

September 29, 2015

Deferred maintenance can be defined as, “an estimate of the required costs to maintain safe, comfortable, and supportive learning environments’. It can also be defined as “disrepair in our children’s schools”.

Ontario public schools have over $15-billion of deferred maintenance. All 72 school boards in the province have a deferred maintenance backlog that contributes to this $15-billion total.

However, Ontario is not alone. In Alberta, deferred maintenance in schools is also an issue.

According to provincial assessments of school buildings conducted every five years, there is approximately $1-billion of deferred maintenance in the Calgary Board of Education’s (CBE) 220 schools and an estimated one-third of these schools will soon be rated “marginal”. A marginal school “meets minimum requirements; has significant deficiencies. May have high operating/maintenance costs.”

Given that roughly 70% of CBE schools are more than 40 years old, nobody should be surprised at the leaky roofs, drafty windows and creaking boilers that are starting to appear. CBE Chair Joy Bowen-Eyre said the school board is coming to a “critical intersection” on capital infrastructure.

A similar situation exists in Edmonton. According to provincial assessments of Edmonton Public School Board’s (EPSB) 200 school buildings, deferred maintenance in 2014 totalled $216-million and was expected to balloon to $710 million by 2017, as 40 additional schools will reach 50 years of age. Unless new funding solutions are found, EPSB is projected to have $1-billion of deferred maintenance in its schools by 2026.

Schools in the Edmonton Catholic School Board’s (ECSB) 88 schools have an estimated $250-million in deferred maintenance. Trustees from the ECSB have referred to this situation as an “infrastructure crisis”.

A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world…

September 23, 2015

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

With the federal election underway, we have an opportunity to raise the issue of disrepair in Canadian public schools. Please take advantage of this opportunity. Speak to your local candidates and write them a letter urging them to invest in public schools as a critical element of our society’s infrastructure.

As proof of the famous Margaret Mead quote above, we wanted to share a story from early on in the Fix Our Schools campaign during the Spring 2014 Ontario provincial election…

At that time, we had not yet formally launched Fix Our Schools and the campaign only consisted of six parents who all lived in the Parkdale-High Park provincial riding. All six of us agreed that we would ask our local candidates and their canvassers about disrepair in our neighbourhood public schools.

We were pleasantly surprised when, a couple of weeks later, campaign flyers from these candidates were delivered to households and on those flyers, we saw the issue of disrepair in public schools was listed. There, in black and white, was proof that a few thoughtful, committed citizens talking about an issue could bring that issue to the forefront.

Our only regret was that we hadn’t started the Fix Our Schools campaign a year or two earlier so we would have been more organized and had a larger impact! Guess we’ll have to be patient and wait until the next provincial election…

In the meantime, we have a federal election underway and an opportunity for thoughtful, committed citizens to ask their local federal candidates about investing in schools as critical public infrastructure. As a thoughtful, committed citizen, please take advantage of this opportunity!

Send a letter to your local federal candidates

September 19, 2015

To send a letter to your local federal candidates urging them to allocate federal infrastructure dollars to repairing and rebuilding our country’s public schools, click here. You can also simply copy and past the letter, which is printed below on this blog post.

Our federal government provides money for universities, colleges, curling rinks and hockey arenas. Surely the five-million Canadian children who attend public schools deserve some federal money to go towards ensuring their schools are safe and well-maintained?

All you need to do is fill out the names and email addresses of your local federal candidates, then sign your name and mailing address so the candidate knows you are a voter in their riding. To find email addresses for your local federal candidates click here.

Copy of the Fix Our Schools letter to federal candidates

Dear YOUR LOCAL FEDERAL CANDIDATES,

Children in one Canadian school wore winter coats at school this past winter because their classroom was twelve degrees Celsius.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident of disrepair in Canadian public schools:

In Vancouver, schools need approximately $1-billion of seismic upgrades to prevent collapse in case of earthquakes; and there are hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding maintenance in public schools across British Columbia.
In Calgary, there is $1-billion in deferred maintenance in schools at the Calgary Board of Education. Deferred maintenance is defined as “estimate of the required costs to maintain safe, comfortable and supportive learning environments”. Given current provincial funding levels, the amount of deferred maintenance is going to continue to grow.
In Edmonton, there is over $250-million in deferred maintenance in Edmonton Catholic School District (ECSD) schools and over $200-million in deferred maintenance in Edmonton Public District School Board (EPDSB) schools.
In Ontario, all 72 public school boards have repair backlogs, for a total of over $15-billion of outstanding repairs – many of which are deemed “urgent” by the Province.
In Montreal, almost 40% of the 226 schools in one board were recently deemed to be in either an “excessive [or] advanced state of decay”.
In New Brunswick, two public schools had to be closed in 2010 because they were unsafe, forcing that provincial government to invest more in school buildings.

The 5-million children who attend Canadian public schools deserve better – as do the countless Canadian children who attend childcare programs in these same schools. Voters across the country consider their local public schools to be community hubs, and expect these buildings to be safe, well-maintained, and funded as critical social infrastructure.

Federal infrastructure money has been used for hockey arenas, curling rinks and gazebos. Surely, Canadians would agree that federal investment in school buildings is equally important? So, our question to the Federal parties is this:

How much federal infrastructure money would your party invest in repairing and rebuilding Canadian public school buildings – a critical part of our country’s infrastructure?

Kind regards,

YOUR NAME & ADDRESS

“One Angry Mother” appalled at learning conditions for her JK child

September 16, 2015

“One Angry Mother” took her JK child to school for the first time last week and was appalled by the unacceptably hot and overcrowded learning conditions provided. She was angry enough to start an online petition and pen a letter worth reading (see below). It is heartfelt, poignant and will resonate for many of you. Children are, indeed, our future and deserve safe, well-maintained, healthy, comfortable learning environments.

On Tuesday September eighth I, along with many other parents, brought children to school for the very first time.

It was supposed to be a time of exhilarating pride and joy, marking a new milestone in the development of the tiny little embryos that we’ve each nurtured and cared for, that we’ve doted over, and worried about, and cried over, and laughed with, and loved into beautiful little school-aged children and into the future of our city, our country, and our world.
Please understand this: These children ARE OUR FUTURE!

It is right now that we are deciding precisely what that future is going to be. By our actions towards them and by the value we place on them, we are making a choice, and every choice will have its consequences.

As I stood outside my son’s new classroom, I saw the care and attention the teachers had put into making his first day of school a wonderful experience. Each child’s name had been carefully written on little Nemo-themed placards and posted to the cork board outside of the class. I began to count those names.

I knew that teachers were unhappy and that the new school year may not start on time if there were to be a strike. It is only now that I am understanding, first-hand, why.

I am not sure how many politicians understand exactly what three and four year-old children are like and why it is absolutely not okay to stuff thirty of them into a small classroom with only two caregivers, but I am hoping that there are enough who will make an educated guess and do something to fix this.

Are we trying to drive these loving, caring professionals out of their careers and out of their minds? If there is a shortage of teachers, I can certainly see why. Regardless of how much these teachers love their children, there is only so much a person can take.

If I may go off on a tangent here: At the end of my son’s very first school day ever, I emptied his backpack. When I opened his sandwich container I observed the remnants of his cheese sandwich, which had not been grilled, and which had spent the previous evening, chilling in the fridge. My son’s cheese had literally melted into his bread. Lets put the teachers aside for a moment and ask ourselves how children are supposed to learn, while sweltering half to death in a school with no air conditioning, during an extreme heat alert? Oh, and lets not forget that they are packed in there like sweaty little sardines!

I went into the school year enthusiastically optimistic that he would be given the best education that our tax dollars could provide, and certain that I had done everything in my power to give my son the best chance at success in life. I moved into this neighbourhood during my pregnancy, all to get into this specific school, which is one of the best, in my opinion, in this city. It took the span of my entire pregnancy just to find a place we could afford in this particular school district.

If these are the conditions in some of our best schools, I shudder to think of what may be going on at some of the worst!

Right now you may be reading this, comfortable in your nice air-conditioned home or office, and thinking, ‘first-world problems’, but you know what, this is where we live! We live in what we like to call a ‘world-class city’, in a first-world country, and that makes them OUR problems! We certainly don’t have it as bad as some places, that is very fortunately true, but there is still lots of ‘room for improvement’. Are we content to say at least we aren’t as bad as the worst, or are we striving to be our very best? Our children are watching and I’m sure they’d like to know.

This country is amazing. Right now we have celebrities flying in from all over to take part in our film festival. We hosted the PanAm Games. We polish things up and put on a pretty show, while behind the scenes our children being treated as an afterthought. Do we care more about putting on appearances, or building a solid foundation of truly outstanding Canadians; great leaders, thinkers, and innovators, who will stand up and declare, in their words and deeds, that this country is nothing short of the best of the best, both on the world stage, and behind the scenes. Because if we don’t do our work before we get up on the stage, then we are certainly not about to just magically become the best show in town.

I would like to see class sizes no larger than 20 students for primary school, ESPECIALLY kindergarten. I would like each kindergarten class aided with their own dedicated full-time ECE or EA person. The ratio of children under age six to caregivers should never be over 10:1. This is for their academic success as well as their safety.

When I vote, I am voting for whoever has the future, our children, in mind, and that may or may not be the Liberals. While they are boasting their updated sexual education curriculum, I am deeply suspicious that all the controversy that has been stirred up around it was purposely orchestrated in order to distract from the academic concerns, namely over-stuffed classrooms, and overtaxed teachers. The sex concern has been resolved rather quickly. I’m eager to see how quickly we can now start to focus on the logistic and academic concerns.

Sincerely,

One Angry Mother

How to find your local federal candidate’s email address

September 15, 2015

Interested in contacting your local federal candidates by email? Use the links below to navigate to each party’s candidate for your riding.

Click here to find Green Party candidate’s email address – enter your postal code and your local candidate will pop up with email address.

Click here to find your Liberal Party candidate’s email address – select your province, then locate your candidate listed alphabetically (if you don’t know your Liberal candidates’ name, use the Elections Canada website below!), click on your candidate, and then click on their listed website, which should lead you to their email address.

Click here to find your NDP Party candidate’s email address – enter your postal code to find your candidate and then use the email format firstname.lastname@ndp.ca as their email address. You will generally not find email addresses on candidates websites but instead will see a “contact us form”.

Click here to find your PC Party candidate’s email address – enter your postal code, then clicking on the magnifying glass icon; then click on the “Learn More” to drill down to find candidate’s email address.

Click here for the Elections Canada website to see all candidates in your riding but no email addresses here!

Letter to all federal parties: What will you invest in repairing & rebuilding Canadian public schools?

September 14, 2015

Fix Our Schools is sending the following letter to the Green, Liberal, NDP, and PC Parties of Canada; and to all Ontario federal candidates. Print it out to review with any federal canvassers that come knocking on your door or take it with you to a federal candidates debate.

To: The Green, Liberal, NDP and Conservative Parties of Canada

My son wore his winter coat at school this past winter because his classroom was twelve degrees Celsius.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident of disrepair in Canadian public schools:

In Vancouver, schools need approximately $1-billion of seismic upgrades to prevent collapse in case of earthquakes; and across British Columbia there are hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding maintenance in public schools.
In Ontario, all 72 public school boards have repair backlogs, for a total of over $15-billion of outstanding repairs – many of which are deemed “urgent” by the Province.
In Montreal, almost 40% of the 226 schools in one board were recently deemed to be in either an “excessive [or] advanced state of decay”.
In New Brunswick, two public schools had to be closed in 2010 because they were unsafe, forcing that provincial government to invest more in school buildings.

The 5-million children who attend Canadian public schools deserve better – as do the countless Canadian children who attend childcare programs in these same schools. Voters across the country consider their local public schools to be community hubs, and expect these buildings to be safe, well-maintained, and funded as critical social infrastructure.

How much federal infrastructure money would your party invest in repairing and rebuilding Canadian public school buildings – a critical part of our country’s infrastructure?

Kind regards,

Krista Wylie – Co-Founder, Fix Our Schools

www.fixourschools.ca: grassroots, non-partisan advocates for safe, well-maintained schools

Barbara Hall’s TDSB Report – where is it?

September 14, 2015

Both Toronto dailies have printed concerns about when the Barbara Hall report on the TDSB is going to be released. The Toronto Sun printed “Ontario Liberals Sitting on TDSB Report” on Sept. 6 and the Toronto Star printed “Release Report on School Board Now” on Sept. 11.

Back in mid-July, Fix Our Schools followed up with this letter to the TDSB Governance Panel. We know that Barbara Hall and her colleagues have submitted the report to Premier Wynne and Minister Sandals. However, we do not yet know what is in that report because the province appears to be sitting on the report. Speculation abounds as to why this is the case. Could it be the ongoing labour negotiations that are preventing the release of this report? Could it be the federal election? Could it be the Province doesn’t like what is in the report? Anybody’s guess really.

We continue to hope that any recommendations made by the TDSB Governance Panel will:

• get to the heart of the issues at the TDSB

• respect the fact that this new board of Trustees has had scant time to actually govern

• keep the best interests of TDSB students and families in mind

In a world of finite resources, what would you choose?

September 12, 2015

As Co-founder of the Fix Our Schools campaign, I just hit “send” on this letter to the Editor at the Globe & Mail:

Dear Editor,

Please accept the following submission in response to the Editorial entitled, “The 2024 Toronto Olympics? No thanks.”

In a world of finite resources, I’d invest in the children of this city

My son wore his winter coat at school this past winter because his classroom was 12-degrees. Last week, countless Toronto children would have worn as little as possible to cope with 38-degree heat and no air conditioning in their 50-100-year old schools.

To repair and rebuild Toronto’s public schools would cost between $4-6-billion. This investment would benefit over 350,000 children across four school boards, who spend 6 hours/day, 5 days/week, 10 months/year in buildings that all too frequently provide sub-standard learning environments.

To host the 2024 Summer Olympics would also cost between $4-6-billion. As much as I love the Olympics, in a world of finite resources, I would choose to invest in the children of this city. Let’s fix our schools.

Kind regards, Krista Wylie

In a world of finite resources, what would you choose?

New Brunswick: what investing in school infrastructure looks like!

September 10, 2015

“Canada is one of the best countries in the world in which to get an education”, according to a recent report issued by Environics Canada. Despite this glowing commendation, school buildings across the country have been left to crumble in recent years.

Let’s have a look at New Brunswick public schools, which serve approximately 87,000 students – and which hit a crisis point in December 2010…

Two public schools had to be shut down due to health and safety concerns – a huge wake-up call for the Progressive Conservative provincial government that was in power at that time. In response, Education Minister Jody Carr announced $98.3 million in funding to upgrade and build new schools, the largest capital budget ever for New Brunswick’s Ministry of Education at $1,100 per student – and an important investment in the children of that province.

This investment allowed for Moncton High School to be rebuilt. Arguably, had the original school been well-maintained over the years, it could still be serving the community. However by 2010, the building was unsafe for students and the cost of restoring the original building outweighed the cost of rebuilding from scratch.

After reflecting on how New Brunswick schools had reached the crisis point of actually having to close public schools because they had become unsafe, Education Minister Carr concluded that provincial governments had not spent enough to keep schools well-maintained.

“It was clear to me that successive governments have not worked hard enough to fund, maintain and repair our aging school buildings,” Carr said in his budget speech. “I’m also convinced that we need to better prioritize, plan and manage school upgrades across our province,” he said.

Fast forward four years to December 2014…

With a Liberal provincial government now in power in New Brunswick, Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Serge Rousselle announced another large investment of $95.9-million (another $1,100 per student!) in maintaining, fixing and rebuilding public schools across the province.

“New Brunswick’s public schools must continue to offer safe and healthy environments that meet the needs of students, teachers and staff,” Rousselle said. “This significant investment in educational infrastructure will result in new and enhanced schools that will support students as they continue their journey of learning.”

How does this compare to Ontario?

If Ontario were to invest $1,100 per student this year into school infrastructure, that would translate into $2.2-billion. Our provincial government is investing nowhere near that amount in Ontario’s school infrastructure. In fact, only $250-million was allocated to School Condition Improvement in 2014-15 and $500-million was allocated in 2015-16. Premier Wynne and Minister Sandals – are you listening? Let’s start to make a real investment in Ontario’s school infrastructure.

Lots of work done over the summer at Ontario public schools!

September 9, 2015

According to TDSB Ward 11 Trustee Shelley Laskin’s recent e-newsletter, lots of work has happened this past summer to improve the state of TDSB schools, including 118 roofing projects across TDSB schools since March. If you have examples of work that was done at schools near you – no matter where you live in Ontario – please share with us.

Below is a detailed list of the many facilities projects that were completed in TDSB Ward 11 schools over the summer, which is just a small glimpse into all the facilities projects that were completed across all 72 Ontario public school boards:

JR Wilcox received solar panels on its roof.
Renovations to increase the number of available classrooms were undertaken at Brown, Deer Park and McMurrich.
The field was re-sodded at Davisville and the turf was repaired at Maurice Cody.
Brick work was done at Deer Park
Stairs were repaired at McMurrich as well as at Northern.
Northern also had issues with its hot water tanks and they are being replaced.
FHCI had its pool repaired and significant repairs to the pool at Deer Park should be completed by the end of October.
Caretaking staff worked diligently over the summer cleaning and polishing and mowing.

A good reminder that a lot of work does get done over the summer at our children’s schools! Still a lot to do to deal with $15-billion of needed repairs in Ontario’s public schools but encouraging to hear specific projects nonetheless.