The Toronto Catholic District School Board has been transparent about disrepair in its schools for years, as per this committee report dated 2014. The 2016 version of this report is due out soon.
Fix Our Schools applauds this level of transparency. We encourage all Toronto Catholic parents to read this report and, if you’re concerned with the disrepair in your local school, we urge you to contact your local MPP, the Minister of Education and Premier Wynne. Certainly copy the Principal, Superintendent and Trustee for your local school on any correspondence however these people do not have the power to fix the problem, which stems from years of underfunding by the provincial government.
Local school boards have no way to raise money for repairing schools except to rely on the funding provided by the Ontario government. While provincial funding was recently increased to an industry-accepted level of yearly funding for repairs, this new level of funding does not address the $15-billion of disrepair in Ontario schools that has been allowed to accumulate over the past two decades. To adequately address this backlog will require further work by Premier Wynne’s government so be sure to let your MPP know this is an issue of importance to you!