Author Archives: admin

Ask YOUR Trustee to publish data on your local school conditions

March 9, 2018

We instinctively know that our governments are accountable when voters are able to assess what and how they are doing. But how do we evaluate the use of our tax dollars? That’s dependent on our having the freedom to access the reports and actions of those who spend them.

At Fix Our Schools we supported the TDSB’s work to give parents access to the true nature of the school buildings in their purview. We were very proud of the board when they published repair lists for every school. Now a TDSB parent can monitor the condition of their children’s school. We haven’t found another school board who publishes the repair backlog for every school in their board. (If you know of another, please contact us!)

We spoke to Robin Pilkey, chair of the TDSB, about why THIS board viewed publishing as an important step for Ontario’s largest school board.

“The TDSB felt that publishing clear and transparent repair data for every one of our schools was an important step towards parents understanding the state of their children’s schools. Two decades of underfunding of school repairs by our provincial government has led to an accumulation of a repair backlog of over $4 Billion in the TDSB’s 583 school buildings. Annual provincial funding has increased drastically in recent years, which is excellent but we still need to find funding solutions for the repair backlog that accrued when annual provincial funding was only one-tenth or less of what industry standards suggest it ought to have been to keep our school buildings in a state of good repair.”

So Fix Our Schools asks: if the TDSB can collate data for 583 schools, publish it on 583 websites and update it annually, why can’t all the other school boards in Ontario do it too?

School trustees are elected by us and work for us. Take a moment to attend a ward meeting, shake your trustee’s hand and ask for your school’s repair list. Or, attend a school council meeting and ask your council Chair to request the data from the trustee; it is the public’s data.

As voters, we need to be able to have informed conversation about publicly-owned school buildings and this is a necessary step toward that goal.

Youth Advocacy

March 7, 2018

The youth of Ontario know that their schools are in terrible shape. They dodge buckets of brown water leaking from roofs and sit in classrooms that could never be called ‘room temperature’. They know there is something wrong with the air in some of their classrooms because they feel dizzy or have problems breathing.

As parents, we don’t hear all the details… our children don’t know that school could be any other way. Many parents love their school community and cannot separate it from the building’s condition. We need to realize that school conditions are impacting our children’s learning.

When students contact us, it is often to say that they feel youth are not being heard. At Fix Our Schools we encourage them, giving them tools to advocate for themselves. Teachers can help them learn these skills by discussing issues that students face daily and encouraging them to take action. What is more ‘real world’ than your chipped locker that you face every day?

Ontario curriculum teaches Civics in Grade 10 – why don’t we encourage students to follow the steps through our levels of government to get the boiler replaced at their school, or a new school built in their neighbourhood? Wonder what concerns they have about the condition of their school? Ask. You’ll be surprised.

We ask.. this is what we hear:

Broken Staircases
Broken Railings
Holes in Walls
Freezing Classroom
Paint Peeling
Brown Ceilings
No Wi-Fi
No Stall Doors Left in Washrooms
Water Dripping
Cleanliness of Washrooms
No Computer Access
Lack of Equipment
Classrooms at 40°C
Radiators Falling off Walls
Rusted Bike Racks
Asbestos Wrapped Pipes
“Funny” Air

Is provincial EDC regulation “constitutionally inoperative” and unfair?

February 28, 2018

Since our inception as a campaign in Spring 2014, Fix Our Schools has urged the provincial government to change its outdated regulation regarding eligibility and use of Education Development Charges (EDCs). Over the past four years, the issue of EDCs has surfaced countless times as a possible (albeit partial!) funding solution for the $15.9-billion repair backlog plaguing Ontario’s publicly funded schools.

On February 27, 2018, Globe & Mail reporter Caroline Alphonso reported that the TDSB, Canada’s largest school board, has challenged the Ontario government over the equity of its EDC regulation in an article entitled, “TDSB challenges “unfair” development-charge regulation”.

In its filing to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the TDSB pointed out that, while it is obligated under the Education Act to provide “adequate accommodation” to all students who have a right to attend its schools, “the TDSB is not able to adequately plan for and address the accommodation pressures occasioned by that growth.”

Continue reading →

How to help ensure that fixing Ontario’s schools becomes a key election issue in June

February 23, 2018

If you care about public education and want to ensure that all Ontario children attend schools that are safe, well-maintained and provide environments conducive to learning, then please use the following materials to engage with the Fix Our Schools campaign and help make a difference!

1. A Flyer to provide you and your network with a quick overview of the Fix Our Schools campaign and some ideas for actions you can take.
2. A Pledge to show your local MPP candidates in the coming months to have them sign to demonstrate their commitment to fixing public schools in Ontario.
3. An MPP_Information Kit to equip you to set up a meeting with your local MPP or any of your local MPP candidates for the upcoming June election.
4. A Campaign_Guide that provides more details about the Fix Our Schools campaign – if you are really committed to the cause and wish to launch your own Fix Our Schools campaign locally, then this guide will help you do just that!

Should you like hard copies of any of these materials sent to you, please contact us at info@fixourschools.ca.

Major Roof Leak in Ancaster School

February 20, 2018

Students sent in the video included in this CHCH report on an Ancaster high school roof leak from February 15, 2018. The video clearly illustrates how $15.9-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools translates into the day-to-day reality for too many children in this province.

The major roof leak resulted in 37 garbage cans filled with brown liquid lining one hallway in the building. In addition, seven classrooms were closed.

The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) said that some of those seven classrooms have asbestos and that, while the asbestos hasn’t been moved at all, the possibility for problems with asbestos disturbance led them to close those classrooms. The Superintendent said there was no concern for the school’s structural integrity and that no mould was found in testing.

Unfortunately, countless schools across the province experience roof leaks every day and repairs are only done reactively rather than proactively since provincial funding has been so grossly inadequate for so long.

New Education Minister focused on physical well-being of Ontario’s school children

February 9, 2018

This week, Ontario’s new Minister of Education visited a Toronto public school to highlight her Ministry’s new investments to help keep children and youth physically active inside and outside the classroom.

While we applaud Ms. Indira Naidoo-Harris for putting a spotlight on the physical well-being of Ontario schoolchildren, the location she chose to make that announcement is an ironic one.

At over 100 years of age, St. Cecilia public school has $4.4 million of disrepair, according to Ministry published data.*

The lack of adequate and stable funding from the Provincial Government for over two decades has left thousands of schools in Ontario in a similar state. School Boards have been forced to address only the most urgent repairs, leaving items on the “high needs” list to continue to get worse. Boards have not been able to choose repairs to do; those repairs have been chosen for them. For example, once a school roof starts leaking (which happens with alarming frequency across the province!), that issue clearly becomes the priority repair, since water will damage other parts of the building. Without proactive planning, the condition of the capital assets we call schools will continue to degrade.

Going for a walk seems a simplistic solution for students in schools that, because of lack of capital improvements, have poor air & water quality, no safety upgrades and unhygienic washrooms.

Fix Our Schools calls on the Provincial Government to give specific details on how they will address the $15.9 Billion repair backlog in Ontario’s schools.

*To see the repair backlog data for your school visit: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/fci.html

For a list of the specific repairs needed at your school, the TDSB (a leader in repair transparency) publishes the data on each school’s individual website under “Renewal Needs”. We encourage you (if you are not with the TDSB), to demand the release of the specific repairs needed for your school from your local trustee. Every parent deserves to know what repairs are needed at their child’s school.

What one parent wrote to Premier Wynne

February 6, 2018

Leading up to the Ontario Liberal AGM held February 2-4, 2018, citizens were asked to share “what was on their mind” with the Premier. One Ontario parent sent us her letter to the Premier, focused on school buildings in this province.

Dear Premier Wynne,

I thank you for the opportunity to let you know what is concerning my community. One of my children goes to a large elementary school in Ontario and I would like to say that the parents at the school can be confident that their kids are getting the best education in a quality school in our great country. However that is not the case.

Instead, every parent at that school has spent years very worried about the overcrowding, poor air quality, fire safety and structural integrity of that school. In short, they are concerned for their children’s safety and how it impacts their learning.

For a decade now, one of the many many urgent repairs needed on the building is the ‘standpipe system’. Imagine my surprise when I learned that that meant the fireman couldn’t hook their hoses into the upper floors of the building. Patch jobs over the years have meant almost every year at least one of the fire exits is blocked. One of the exits was boarded up for a week when an exterior staircase started to give way. For five years now, the front doors are mended frequently, as the panic bars often malfunction making it impossible to exit the building in an emergency.

Both of my children try to time their days so that they don’t need to use the washrooms at their schools. It is very common for stalls to be missing doors and for there to be no soap or hot water. I spoke to an architect recently who explained to me how easy it is to design a washroom that doesn’t break down and is also easy to hose down at the end of the day.

My eldest attends a high school now. The staff and teachers are excellent and work hard. I watched 4 caretakers last week scrub floors until they were gleaming. That is gleaming between the cracks that have opened up in high traffic areas. The stairs are impossible to clean, as the surfaces of them have worn down to the point where there are no longer treads for safety. Paint peels off the lockers as the kids open them. They inhale paint chips, flakes from old ceiling panels and dirty air from ancient fans that are caked in a black substance which I can’t identify.

The teachers in the school wear their winter coats, but as that is technically banned in the school, my eldest now wears 4 layers of clothing and a sweater to try to get warm enough to concentrate. She tells us how hard it is to learn when you are cold.

I try not to think about it, and I don’t talk to my kids about it, but I am also very concerned with the age of their school buildings, how behind they are in repairs and a resulting structural failure.

I guess my question to you is what are you going to do to ensure that my children and the 2,500 other children in their schools are in safe buildings that don’t expose them to asbestos, dirty air, fire risks, poor air quality, lead in the water, extreme temperatures and worse.

Please DON”T tell me that you’ve improved the funding to the schools. I can read (as can the other parents) and I can see that the repair list is getting longer every year. It is clear to all of the parents at our schools that the school board is doing all they can, and that you need to do a lot more.

I am also a home owner and I know that I can’t put repairs off because they just create a bigger, more expensive job. Why has your government let repairs go this long? As a taxpayer, I want a government who is responsible with my taxes.

Please let me know the exact steps your government plans to take so that my children have any hope of a repaired, safe school before they graduate.

According to the Ontario Auditor-General…

February 1, 2018

When it comes to funding education in this province, the most recent report from Ontario’s Auditor-General states on page 429 of the report that the Ministry of Education “does not allocate funding based on actual needs, and does not analyze whether additional funding provided for some students is actually achieving the intended results.”

If we value an educated society, shouldn’t our government allocate funding for education based on actual student needs?

Fix Our Schools certainly thinks so… what do you think?

First Nations Schools need $2 Billion Urgently

January 26, 2018

Most schools in Ontario are funded solely by the Province. (Your property taxes no longer go directly to your school board.) Those publicly funded schools have been grossly underfunded for decades and have mind-boggling repair lists.

But let us not forget about the school districts in Ontario funded by the Federal Government: The First Nations. These schools need “immediate attention” according to documents tabled in the House of Commons. One community, in Pikangikum First Nation, had to wait TEN years for a new school after the previous one burned down. Shame. Schools are essential to all communities.

All publicly funded schools in Ontario, including First Nations schools, suffer from inadequate and unstable funding. All levels of government must know that education matterts to voters. We must demand that they Fix Our Schools.

Our contribution to the provincial pre-budget consultation process

January 22, 2018

Fix Our Schools contributed this submission to the provincial pre-budget consultation process. It highlights that the $1.4 billion/year our provincial government is currently allocating for school renewal is simply not enough to start to reduce the $15.9 billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools. To make up for the 20 years when provincial funding was a mere fraction of what it ought to have been as per industry standards, economist Hugh Mackenzie suggests that an additional investment of $1.6 billion/year is needed to start to truly fix Ontario’s schools as per the following breakdown:

Continue reading →