Tag Archives: FCI

School is in Session! Yet Queen’s Park is Not…

September 9, 2021

Premier Ford Prorogues Legislature Until October 4

In the midst of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the return of almost 2-million Ontario children to schools that have been closed since April is pivotal for students, parents, teachers and education workers across the province. However, Premier Ford felt this was the right time to prorogue provincial legislature until October 4, when our MPPs were meant to be back at work on September 13.

According to the September 3 article in the Toronto Sun entitled, Ontario government prorogues legislature until after the federal election”, NDP and Green Leaders Andrea Horwath and Mike Schreiner both expressed that Ford’s move was irresponsible and an abdication of responsibility.

“It’s bad enough that Doug Ford has gone into hiding for over a month, now he is choosing to hide his entire government,” said Horwath.

Schreiner added, “When the times are tough and Ontarians need support, Doug Ford and his government run for the shadows.”

Mitigating COVID-19 Risks in Schools

Sabina Vohra-Miller, MSc. in Clinical Pharmacology, runs a non-partisan blog called Unambiguous Science, with the goal of “helping people navigate the current anti-science vortex by breaking data down into posts that are easy to understand”.  She released a helpful blog this past week entitled, “Safe Schools – Advocacy and Considerations” to assist parents in advocating for mitigation strategies and in navigating the complexity of return-to-school amidst the fourth wave of the COVID-19-pandemic. Vohra-Miller included the following two graphics to clarify how schools can be mitigating COVID-related risks, and to outline considerations for families as children head back to schools.

Ventilation has been a key concern for us at Fix Our Schools, and we will continue to cover this important topic in the coming weeks and months. At the moment, we believe that our provincial government must provide the required funding and resources to ensure school boards gather measurements on ventilation and indoor air quality in all classrooms to compare against a provincial standard. Without knowing the outcome of ventilation improvement efforts and having a standard that all Ontario schools must meet, we simply have no way of knowing whether the ventilation and indoor air quality in a given classroom is sufficient to reduce the spread of COVID.

Ontario’s University of Guelph has been incredibly transparent about how they are preparing for your safe return, stating that, “Physical Resources has assessed ventilation in all classrooms scheduled for use this fall. Before classes begin in September, all classrooms that will be in use will have ventilation measures in place that provide for the equivalent of six outside air changes per hour (ACH). Air movement and, in some cases, air purifiers will allow these spaces to reach this ventilation target – a measure equal to the standard in place for medical examination rooms.” As of August 12, 2021, anyone can view detailed ventilation measures in all University of Guelph classrooms to track progress towards meeting the 6 ACH standard.

The example of the University of Guelph, which has many other funding options at its disposal beyond the provincial government, provides a stark contrast to Ontario’s publicly funded schools, which rely exclusively upon provincial funding. The University of Guelph has set a standard of 6 air changes per hour (ACH), the same standard in place for medical examination rooms, and then has been taking the measurements in classrooms to ensure these standards are met.  When will our provincial government provide the standards, funding and resources for public schools in this province to ensure that indoor air quality and ventilation is at an appropriate level in all Ontario’s classrooms?  

A Long History of Provincial Underfunding for School Infrastructure 

Chronic and gross underfunding from Ontario’s provincial government for school infrastructure has led to a $16.8-B repair backlog in Ontario’s schools. This massive repair backlog does not even include issues such as classroom temperatures and humidity, accessibility issues with the vast majority of Ontario’s schools, technology gaps, or the state of portables, the conditions of which are never assessed.

When Fix Our Schools began in 2014, provincial funding for school renewal and repair was only $150-M/year for all Ontario school boards – an amount that was ONE-TENTH what industry standards suggest the bare minimum amount of funding ought to have been to keep Ontario’s schools in decent shape. To the credit of the previous provincial government, they did increase this annual amount significantly back in 2016 to $1.4-B/year – the amount industry standards recommended as the bare minimum. However, as Fix Our Schools has repeatedly pointed out – this annual funding level is still insufficient to make up for the 20+ years when funding was grossly inadequate and during which time a $15-B repair backlog accumulated in Ontario’s schools. So, unsurprisingly, despite the ongoing $1.4-B/year of provincial funding for school renewal and repairs, the repair backlog for Ontario’s schools has continued to grow year over year to a gob-smacking $16.8-B.

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly laid bare the importance of school buildings for the health and well-being of students, teachers and education workers. As we head into another school year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, City TV Toronto covered the issue of disrepair in schools on September 7, 2021. They revealed that the schools in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) combined have close to $5-B of disrepair. Fix Our Schools was interviewed for this segment, and emphasized how the current provincial funding, while a huge sum of money, is simply insufficient if we actually want to eliminate the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools and ensure our publicly funded schools are safe, healthy and well-maintained.

CBC Toronto has also started covering this important issue, kicking off a series about the state of TDSB schools on September 9, 2021. John Riete, Angelina King, and Katie Swyers provided a comprehensive and concise look at why school conditions matter and the impact of poor school conditions on learning and health. Fix Our Schools provided an overview of the history that has led to a public education system where Ontario schools face a $16.8-B backlog of disrepair.

Krista Wylie, the co-founder of the organization Fix Our Schools, said the solution has to come from Queen’s Park. Since 2016, the province (under the Wynne and Ford governments) has spent some $1.4 billion per year on school repairs across the province, but that funding is split across some 5,000 schools. That price tag may look big, but Wylie said in her view it’s the “absolute minimum, and noted that even with this often cited “historic level of provincial funding”, the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has continued to grow every year, proving that provincial funding is simply insufficient.

Cheaper to Rebuild Some Schools than to Repair

February 4, 2020

The last time the Ontario government released disrepair data for publicly funded schools was in Fall 2017 despite the fact that on the Ministry of Education’s website, we read: 

“The Government of Ontario is committed to increasing the transparency of its historic investments in school infrastructure so that Ontarians can see the importance of this funding and the results it yields over time. That is why the Ministry of Education is ensuring that the most recent results from its School Condition Assessment Program are readily available to the public. Through this program, independent, third-party facility inspectors conduct assessments to obtain data on the current condition of all open and operating schools across the province. The Facility Condition Index (FCI) is derived from the information that is collected through this process.”

Fix Our Schools has made repeated calls for the Ford government to update and release disrepair data for all schools in the province but our requests have, to date, fallen on deaf ears. And so, we are left relying on data that is over two years old. Based on this data, economist Hugh Mackenzie estimated that there were 346 schools in the province that would be cheaper to rebuild than to repair. 

And, according to CBC’s February 4, 2020 article, “14 aging Toronto public schools would cost more to repair than rebuild“. 

The list of schools include:

  1. Etobicoke Year Round Alternative Centre
  2. Oakdale Park Middle School
  3. Amesbury Middle School
  4. Winona Drive Senior Public School
  5. Charles G. Fraser Junior School
  6. Ryerson Community School
  7. Montrose Junior Public School
  8. Winchester Junior and Senior Public School
  9. Blythwood Junior Public School
  10. Eastdale Collegiate Institute
  11. Glen Ames Senior Public School
  12. Secord Public School
  13. Vradenburg Junior Public School
  14. Timberbank Junior Public School

The 14 schools highlighted above have a facility condition index (FCI) number of more than 100 percent, which is calculated by taking the total cost of repairs and dividing it by the value of replacing the entire building. The Ministry of Education hires independent, third-party facility inspectors to gather the information. We are able to identify the 14 schools above because the TDSB updates and releases disrepair for all of its schools each year. While Fix Our Schools is not suggesting that rebuilding these schools is the best approach, we are highlighting how incredibly unacceptable it is that provincial funding over the past 22 years has caused schools to deteriorate to this degree.

 

When asked how the Province was going to respond to the unacceptable level of disrepair in schools, Education Minister Stephen Lecce touted that his government had launched a program last year that will invest more than $500 million into new schools and renovations in addition to the $1.4-billion/year allocated to repair and renewal. When the TDSB alone has $3.5-billion of disrepair in its schools, a $2-billion investment clearly is not sufficient. Fix Our Schools is pushing for an additional $1.6 billion/year from the province, in addition to the $1.4-billion/year Ontario schools are currently receiving.

 

TDSB Releases Updated Disrepair Data – Will Province Follow Suit?

October 31, 2019

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has released its annual snapshot of the condition of its schools. The Fix Our Schools campaign applauds the TDSB’s transparency on this issue and looks to the Ministry of Education to follow suit in updating and releasing disrepair data for all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools. As per today’s media release, the TDSB repair backlog currently stands at $3.5 billion and could hit $5.2-billion by 2023 without additional and predictable funding from the provincial government.

The last time the Province updated and released disrepair data for all of Ontario’s schools was two years ago in October 2017. At that time, the total disrepair in schools across the province totaled $15.9-billion, as determined by a third-party engineering firm hired by the Ministry of Education. Ontarians deserve to know if provincial funding for school repairs has been sufficient to start to see total disrepair in Ontario schools start to decrease – or if more needs to be done. Over 2-million children in this province spend their days in publicly funded schools and they deserve safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning. According to John Malloy, Director, TDSB, “Adequate (provincial) funding to modernize our schools is needed to ensure we have learning environments that support student achievement and well-being.”

Our provincial government is responsible for providing all funding for education and schools. This provincial funding provided to school boards for school repairs was grossly inadequate for almost 20 years, in many years only ONE-TENTH of what industry standards suggest as the bare minimum school boards required to conduct routine repairs and maintenance. This gross and chronic provincial underfunding meant that Mike Harris’ PC government bequeathed $5.6-billion of school disrepair to the Liberal government in 2003 and that the Liberals allowed school disrepair to triple over 15 years to a shocking $15.9-billion as of October 2017. Again, we urge the Ministry of Education to release updated disrepair data as soon as possible, in the same format as in October 2017 to provide transparency to all Ontarians. According to Robin Pilkey, Chair, TDSB, “The fact that the TDSB’s backlog could hit $5.2-billion by 2023 clearly demonstrates the need for additional and predictable (provincial) funding”.

 

How to find the repair backlog for your local school

May 5, 2017

In Ontario, our children attend poorly maintained schools. Unfortunately, children do not remember a time when this was not the case. They expect their schools to be broken. As parents, grandparents, teachers, and caretakers, we know the schools are in poor condition because the Ontario Education Funding formula is broken.

Since our children don’t expect state-of-the-art schools, they rarely report the poor environment they learn in every day. How can you find out what the real condition is at your local school?

In August 2016, The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) led the way in transparency, when it released detailed information on disrepair in its schools, which included definitions and context for understanding both the Facility Condition Index (FCI)  and the Renewal Needs Backlog. The information provided in these links is valuable for ALL Ontario citizens and helps all of us to understand the complicated process used by the provincial government to assess school disrepair.

Feeling pressure to follow suit, the Ministry of Education released an FCI list for all Ontario schools. This chart provides information on each Ontario school such as replacement value, renewal (repair) costs and FCI rating.

Check with your school board to see if you can access more detailed information such as the TDSB has provided its communities. For example, the TDSB has given a list of specific repairs needed for each school, which is very helpful for school councils to advocate for their school. Parents should know if the standpipe system that helps to put out fires needs urgent repairs! Other school boards can access that information as well; school councils can ask to see it.

For TDSB schools, start by finding your school here. 

Next, from your school’s homepage, you’ll see a link to the “Schools Repairs List” on the left-hand side of the screen. Click there to find a detailed list of outstanding repairs at your local schools.

Be informed. Let’s advocate for our local schools. Let’s fix our schools. 

Send us your story on Facebook. Share with us the issues you are having getting your local school fixed. 

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.