Category Archives: Fix Our Schools

Premier Wynne questioned about state of Ontario schools

September 15, 2016

Premier Wynne faced some tough questions about the state of Ontario’s schools during question period on September 14, 2016. NDP Education Critic, Lisa Gretzky, asked, “Schools across the province are crumbling and they have reached a tipping point. There is a $15-billion repair backlog, $3.4 billion in Toronto alone. Students and education workers have been in sweltering hot classrooms and will have to wear winter jackets in the classroom in the winter. Will the Premier admit that her misplaced priorities are forcing our young people to pay the price?”

Premier Wynne cited the additional $1.1-billion her government allocated in June 2016 as an answer. However, this additional funding only serves to bring annual funding for school repairs up to the industry-accepted standard of $1.4-billion per year – where it should have been for the past twenty years! While this new level of annual funding for school repairs is a good first step, the people of Ontario look to Premier Wynne to also address the $15-billion backlog of disrepair that has been allowed to accumulate in our public schools over the past 20 years.

What can I do to help Fix Our Schools?

September 12, 2016

Many people have contacted us recently, asking, “what action can I take to help Fix Our Schools?”.

We are glad you asked! Here are a few specific things that you can do:

  1. Engage with the campaign to receive timely information and ideas for action:
    1. Sign up for our e-newsletters at www.fixourschools.ca/joinus/ 
    2. Like us on Facebook (Fix Our Schools)
    3. Follow us on Twitter (@Fix_Our_Schools)
  2. Share the Fix Our Schools campaign with your network. You could even use this amazing powerpoint presentation to highlight to your Parent Council or other community group the importance of this issue! A Fix Our Schools parent put this together and included very easy talking notes in the powerpoint so literally – any interested person could give this presentation!
  3. Contact your local MPP, the Education Minister and the Premier to let them know that school conditions are an important to you … and that you expect them to prioritize public schools.

For more specific actions to take, please, please engage with our campaign via our e-newsletter and/or Facebook and/or Twitter!

Media continues focus on disrepair in Ontario schools

September 8, 2016

As school started up for 2016/17, media continued to focus on the state of disrepair in Ontario schools.

CBC interviewed TDSB Chair, Robin Pilkey, who said the state of public schools is awful, given the wealth in Toronto and pointed to Education Development Charges as a possible additional source of funding to address disrepair in schools.

Newstalk 1010’s John Moore interviewed Fix Our Schools Fix Our Schools Co-Founder Krista Wylie about how the intense heat will be felt by students trying to learn in old buildings with no air conditioning as school gets underway this year.

CTV’s Naomi Parness continues to discuss school conditions, disrepair in schools and, specifically, how temperature in classrooms impacts learning.

Here’s hoping media will continue to focus on this important issue that impacts Ontario’s students and teachers.

School conditions impact learning

September 7, 2016

Fix Our Schools is pleased that the Ontario Government has acknowledged that schools are an essential part of our province’s infrastructure. Our Minister of Education, Mitzie Hunter explains that when her department does fund school repairs, they are making an “infrastructure investment” that will help drive an “innovative, high growth” economy.1

We know that school conditions matter. Our children’s educations are being seriously affected by the age and condition of the buildings in which they spend their days. There are many factors:

Sleeping_students

  • Poor air quality creates “sick building syndrome” and greatly affects the quality of a student’s learning as well as their health and the # of schools days they miss. The American Lung Association (ALA) found that American children miss more than ten million school days each year because of asthma exacerbated by poor air quality.2 Asthma is the leading cause of absenteeism in the U.S.

 

  • Poor temperature control seriously aff2015_02_13_Runnymede PSects learning. Studies done in the 80’s show that temperatures must be between 20°C and 23.3°C in order for students to concentrate and perform well on reading and math.3 Having to work in freezing cold or boiling hot temperatures also affect teacher morale.
  • Lack of windows and daylight created from poorly designed schools also affects student achievement. There is a consensus that natural light creates the optimum environment.

 

Northern 4Ontario’s provincial government needs to fund school repairs and new schools. We need to work together to create quality learning environments for our students. They are the future of Ontario.

1 https://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2016/08/toronto-area-schools-benefit-from-repairs-and-upgrades.html

2 http://www.ncef.org/pubs/outcomes.pdf

3 http://www.ncef.org/pubs/outcomes.pdf

Tons of media coverage on the issue of disrepair in Ontario’s schools

August 26, 2016

Disrepair in Ontario’s schools is finally making the news!

See below for some of the media coverage this issue has been getting since the TDSB released disrepair data on its schools on August 22, 2016 and the Ministry of Education followed suit by releasing disrepair data for all Ontario schools on August 25, 2016.

Fix Our Schools is pleased to have been contacted as a parent-led, non-partisan voice on this important issue!

CTV Toronto News:  CTV was the first to cover this issue months ago and continues covering it here.

The Globe & Mail:  Read about how 1/3 Toronto schools are in critical condition here.

CBC Metro Morning Toronto:  Listen to interview with Fix Our Schools co-founder Krista Wylie here. Listen to interview with Minister of Education Mitzie Hunter here.

Toronto Star: Read about disrepair in TDSB schools here. Read about the $15-billion repair backlog across all Ontario school boards here.

Global News Toronto: Global News covers school disrepair here.

Newstalk1010 Radio:  TDSB disrepair covered here.

Metro News:  Read about the TDSB’s release of school disrepair data here.

Inside Toronto:  Read about $3.4-billion of disrepair in TDSB schools here.

CBC Morning Show Ottawa:  Listen to interview with Fix Our Schools co-founder Krista Wylie here.

CBC Ontario Morning Show:  Listen to interview with Fix Our Schools co-founder Krista Wylie here. The interview can be found at the 19:53 mark of this podcast.

CBC Toronto News:  Read about school disrepair as a unifying education issue here, with commentary by Bill Mboutsiadis, Fix Our Schools co-founder.

CBC Toronto News: Read about parent reactions to school repairs underway in Toronto here, with commentary by Erin Meana, Fix Our Schools co-founder.

 

Ministry of Education releases disrepair data for ALL Ontario schools!

August 25, 2016

On Thursday, August 25, Ontario’s Ministry of Education released data about disrepair for every single school in the province. Fix Our Schools has been calling for transparency on this information so commends the Ministry for making all of this data public. This new level of transparency is an important next step in ensuring all citizens realize the level of disrepair that exists in Ontario’s publicly funded schools … so that we can ensure the $15-billion of disrepair that currently exists is addressed in short order.

 

Toronto Catholic has been transparent about disrepair in its schools for years

August 23, 2016

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!

If you’re surprised by the disrepair in your local school…

August 22, 2016

The TDSB was the first Ontario school board to release information about disrepair in all of its schools, with complete itemized lists of outstanding repairs along with an indication of whether each repair is urgent, high, medium or low priority. We expect that many citizens will be surprised to see the long lists of outstanding repairs at their local schools.

We urge you to contact your local MPP, the Minister of Education and Premier Wynne to express your concern. 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!

TDSB first to make disrepair information public for each of its schools

August 22, 2016

Fix Our Schools commends the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) for taking a leadership position and being the first school board in Ontario to voluntarily publish detailed information on the disrepair in each of its 588 schools.

The Ministry of Education has been collecting data on outstanding repairs at all Ontario schools for the past five years but has not shared this important information publicly. Our hope is that all of Ontario’s school boards will follow TDSB’s lead and become more transparent with disrepair information since every single one of them has a repair backlog. Similarly, we would expect the Ontario government to make information on disrepair in schools readily available to parents and citizens.

Only when the general public knows there is a problem can the problem be fixed. For too long and for a variety of reasons, the issue of disrepair in Ontario’s schools has not received much attention. Therefore, this step by the TDSB is a crucial one in raising awareness on the issue of disrepair in Ontario’s publicly funded schools.

By visiting the TDSB website and clicking School Repairs List or by visiting the TDSB Home Page for an individual school, parents and citizens can readily find:

  • a complete list of outstanding repairs for a school along with a ranking of whether the repair is classified as urgent, high, medium or low
  • a Facility Condition Index (FCI) number, expressed as a percentage. FCI is calculated by taking the total dollar amount of a school’s repair backlog and dividing that total by the dollar figure of how much it would cost to replace that school (rebuild from new). For instance if there is $1-million of disrepair at a school and the estimated cost of rebuilding that school is $5-million, then the FCI would be 20% whereas if that same school had $4-million of disrepair, then its FCI ranking would be 80%. A higher FCI percentage generally indicates a larger dollar value of disrepair at that school.

 

Ask Federal Government to refund 100% of GST collected back to Canadian School Authorities

August 13, 2016

School authorities (ie school boards) are funded through taxpayer dollars. Currently, our federal government collects GST on all goods and services purchased by school authorities, and then refunds only 68% of the amount collected. The remaining 32% is a tax on a tax.

In recognizing this situation, a petition has been launched to amend the Excise Tax Act (School Authorities) and call upon the House of Commons to support Bill C-241, which seeks to have the full 100% of GST collected by Canada Revenue Agency refunded to school authorities.

To sign this petition, click here. If you have issues signing this petition online – please contact your local MP, since this is a federal petition.

While this issue is slightly beyond the scope of the Fix Our Schools campaign, which is focused on addressing the $15-billion of outstanding repairs in Ontario’s publicly funded schools, we believe that every dollar going back to school boards to benefit students is a good thing!  And so, in this spirit, encourage you to sign this petition.