Tag Archives: Fix Our Schools

Individual vs. Collective Investment in Schools and Education: What is Needed Now from the Ford Government?

January 12, 2021

Since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Ontario’s schools in mid-March 2020, the Ford government has offered financial support to individual families to offset the costs of supporting their children’s learning amidst the pandemic.

  • Between April 6 and August 31, 2020, families could apply for a program called “Support for Families”, which would provide a one-time payment, per child, of $200 for children aged 0 to 12 and $250 for children or youth aged 0 to 21 with special needs. As per the Ministry of Education website, “this funding was offered to help parents with the costs of work books, educational apps, educational subscription services, movies and other tools to support learning at home”
  • On November 5, the Ford government released its annual budget, and announced it would extend an additional one-time payment to families of $200 for children aged 0 to 12 and $250 for children or youth aged 0 to 21 with special needs. “This funding was offered to help families access workbooks, school supplies, and technology to help their child’s learning this year”. The initial deadline to apply through the Get Support for Learners government webpage was originally January 15, 2021 but this deadline has been extended to February 8, 2021.

According to the November 5, 2020 CTV News report entitled, “Ontario parents will get another $200 payout to help with education costs”, the Ford government will spend $380-million on the second round of payments, on top of the $378-million for the first batch of payments. Rod Phillips, Finance Minister for the Ford government at the time, said this was “money well spent.”

On December 22, the Ford government announced that it would extend the same $200/student payment for students aged 13-through until Grade 12. Using 2016 Census Data for Ontario, Fix Our Schools estimates approximately 1-million students fall in this age range, meaning an estimated additional $200-million of government spending on this benefit. The application process for families to apply through the Get Support for Learners government webpage for children aged 13-18 opens January 11, 2021 and closes February 8, 2021.

The direct payments listed above are available to families of students who attend public schools, private schools, First Nations operated or federally operated schools, or are homeschooled. In total, they could equate to up to $958-million ($380-million + $378-million + $200-million) in government support directly to families for education amidst the COVID -pandemic.

Some would approve of the approach that the Ford government has used here – getting money directly into the hands of parents and guardians as quickly as possible, with as little red tape as possible. And there are certainly economic arguments for taking this approach.

However, others would vehemently disapprove of this approach, citing equity concerns such as:

  • Will the families who need support the most even apply to receive this payment due to awareness, access to technology, and time to apply?
  • Will the direct payment amount provided yield any real benefit for the education of children in this most challenging of times, when compared to benefits that may be yielded if this $958-million of provincial funding had been invested collectively in schools and education?

The Fix Our Schools campaign has always focused on ensuring that publicly funded schools in Ontario are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning. The only mechanism within the current provincial funding formula to achieve this goal is for our provincial government to invest collectively in Ontario’s 5,000 schools. So why on earth, when we all knew back in the spring that ventilation in classrooms was key to safety, did the Ford government only invest $50-million in improving school ventilation?

We also question why the Ford government has done nothing to invest in ensuring that elementary students have the space in classrooms required to properly physical distance, knowing early on in the pandemic that this is a key success factor? Furthermore, we question why the Ford government has only invested $15-M collectively in technology for schools amidst this pandemic? Minister Lecce made an announcement on Saturday, January 9th, and shockingly, to quote NDP Education critic Marit Stiles and NDP Childcare critic Doly Begum:

“It’s desperately frustrating for parents that Stephen Lecce got in front of the cameras, and didn’t announce a single measure to make schools safe to re-open. This government doesn’t want to invest in schools, and that’s putting our kids’ health and their education at risk.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fact that school infrastructure in this province has been chronically and grossly underfunded by successive provincial governments (and federal governments in the case of First Nations schools). Prior to the pandemic, there was $16.3-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s publicly funded buildings. A society cannot ignore infrastructure for decades and then expect that infrastructure to be resilient and safe amidst a pandemic. Knowing that the only source of funding for school infrastructure is government funding, Fix Our Schools believes that more collective investment by the Ford government is desperately needed – to address ventilation issues in classrooms, to ensure students have enough space in classrooms to properly distance, to buy the technology that school boards need to ensure all students have what they require to learn to name but a few collective investments. If you share our concerns and want the Ford government to take immediate steps to make the investments required to get all Ontario students back to in-class learning in schools, then please take one minute to send this letter to Premier Ford and your local MPP.

However, we also acknowledge that many families may benefit greatly from the direct payments from the Ford government, so if your family will benefit from the direct payments being offered by the Ford government to help with student learning, please ensure you apply before February 8, 2021 by visiting the Get Support for Learners government webpage. If your family circumstances are such that this direct government payment is not really needed, perhaps consider applying for it, regardless, and then donating the money? An idea to consider. 

Fix Our Schools shares the frustration of opposition parties with the Ford government’s lack of investment and lack of action to date to ensure students could be safe to learn in-person, clearly the best option for all students.

Fix Our Schools feels deep frustration on behalf of the children, teachers, principals, education workers, families, and school boards who have been and continue to be subject to the half-measures and lack of investment and action by our provincial government. Back in late August, Premier Ford said, “We’re really relying on school boards. I just told them I have all the confidence in the world that they’re going to be able to get through this and make sure that the students and the staff are in a very safe environment”. Premier Ford – you cannot continue to underfund schools and education, and then pass the buck to others to work miracles. Fix Our Schools believes that additional collective investment in schools and education is the only way forward, even though this investment would be coming much later than it ought to have been delivered. What do you think?

MPP Begum: $218.9-M of Disrepair in Scarborough-Southwest Schools

January 7, 2021

Dear MPP Begum

Did you know there is $218.9-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Scarborough-Southwest? We commend you for signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election, and making the personal commitment to ensure all Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.

In 2018 MPP Begum signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge to create a Standard of Good Repair for Ontario schools

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and
eliminate the $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Scarborough-Southwest Riding:

Blessed Cardinal Newman CSS (Leased frm RCEC)  $                  11,880,671
Immaculate Heart of Mary CS  $                    1,673,502
Neil McNeil CHS  $                    5,798,117
Our Lady of Fatima  $                       469,200
St Agatha CS  $                    1,899,240
St Boniface CS  $                    2,373,292
St Dunstan CS  $                    4,124,915
St Joachim CS  $                    1,869,660
St Maria Goretti CS  $                       793,560
St Theresa Shrine CS  $                    2,191,490
Anson Park PS  $                    2,446,493
Birch Cliff Heights PS  $                    6,105,516
Birch Cliff PS  $                    7,993,065
Birchmount Park CI  $                  25,363,650
Blantyre PS  $                    2,204,847
Bliss Carman Sr PS  $                    3,997,992
Chine Drive PS  $                    1,525,821
Clairlea PS  $                    4,459,093
Cliffside PS  $                    3,064,133
Corvette Jr PS  $                    6,484,834
Courcelette PS  $                    3,341,156
Danforth Gardens PS  $                    4,767,812
Fairmount PS  $                    3,788,178
H A Halbert Jr PS  $                    3,889,972
J G Workman PS  $                    2,805,676
John A Leslie PS  $                    3,938,952
Mason Road Jr PS  $                    5,594,486
Norman Cook Jr PS  $                    3,813,154
R H King Academy  $                  15,726,636
Regent Heights PS  $                    3,600,018
Robert Service Sr PS  $                    5,161,571
Samuel Hearne MS  $                    5,838,351
SATEC @ WA Porter CI  $                  19,576,330
SCAS  $                  29,361,836
Walter Perry Jr PS  $                    5,238,902
Warden Avenue PS  $                    5,701,119

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Onwards and Upwards But First …

January 5, 2021

Fix Our Schools was founded in 2014 with the goal of ensuring all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools were safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provided environments conducive to learning and working.  With some notable successes along the way, we continue to work towards this goal as we head into 2021. But first, a necessary reflection on the past year and on how Ontario’s provincial government handled school infrastructure in this unprecedented year.

Ontario’s school buildings began 2020 with at least a $16.3-billion repair backlog. While this number is staggering, it notably does not even include First Nations schools, portables, accessibility retrofits, water quality, air quality, or asbestos abatement.

Throughout a year like no other, Ontario’s school boards continued to be at the mercy of provincial funding and policies. While the Ford government maintained annual funding for school renewal and repairs at $1.4-billion/year, this level of funding has been shown to be grossly inadequate since disrepair in Ontario’s schools has continued to increase every year.

In fact, when the Ford government released its budget in November 2020, political economist Ricardo Tranjan declared it to be “really bad for Ontario education”.

https://twitter.com/ricardo_tranjan/status/1324491092147011584?s=20

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ford government actually shirked its responsibility to provide adequate, stable funding for schools and education when it ‘allowed’ school boards to dip into their own reserve funds to try to fund what was actually needed to ensure schools were safe, healthy environments.

Throughout 2020, the Ford government continued to drag its heels on new school builds and expansions across the province, leaving us almost 2 years behind in this process. 

When schools were shuttered in late March 2020 and left empty for months, the Ford government missed the opportunity to invest in school repairs and improvements, such as accessibility retrofits, that could have been done much more safely without students in these buildings. Even for repair and renewal projects that were particularly relevant amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those focused on improving ventilation in schools, the Ford government dragged its heels in allocating any funding to school boards to take action on improvements. 

At the same time that Ontario’s provincial government was unable to take the necessary action to invest in school infrastructure that would provide safe, healthy environments for learning and working, especially amidst a pandemic, our federal government was doing very little to ensure First Nations schools were safe. Many of Ontario’s First Nations schools still do not even have clean drinking water, let alone the type of infrastructure that would be safe and healthy during a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/cbcreporter/status/1298973279923793920?s=20https://twitter.com/cbcreporter/status/1298973279923793920?s=20

The Ford government also failed to make needed changes to an outdated regulation guiding the eligibility for and use of Education Development Charges, so developers continued to get away without contributing to school infrastructure, from which they profit.

Our provincial government chose to ignore an opportunity to fund any outdoor education plans, which could have been a helpful component of a safe return to school in September. 

And, since taking office in June 2018, the Ford government has refused to publish updated disrepair data for Ontario’s 5,000 schools. This data is collected with taxpayer dollars, and citizens deserve transparency into the state of school buildings. 

Looking back on 2020, we realize a “silver lining” of the global pandemic relative to schools is that substantively more attention has been paid to the condition of school buildings. Ventilation, drinking water, and air quality may not be sexy topics, but Canadians now appreciate their importance. Media coverage of the state of school buildings was intense in 2020. With the ardent support of Fix Our School followers, we helped to keep a full conversation about safe, well-maintained schools in the press.

With your ongoing support, we intend to continue our work towards ensuring Ontario schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings for all students and teachers. Onwards and upwards to 2021.

Year in Review: Fix Our Schools In the News

December 17, 2020

When 2020 dawned, never did Fix Our Schools think that ventilation in schools would be one of the most popular topics in education, and yet, here we are heading towards 2021 and that is exactly what happened. The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed what Fix Our Schools has been advocating for since 2014 – publicly funded schools must be safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Never before have so many people agreed that school buildings are critical infrastructure that must be funded accordingly.

Here we present to you our year in review: Fix Our Schools In the News

 

MPP Singh: $12-M of Disrepair in Brampton East Schools

December 15, 2020

Dear MPP Singh,

Did you know there is $12-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Brampton East? We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Brampton East:

Cardinal Ambrozic Catholic Secondary School  $                         185,000
Father Clair Tipping  $                         863,928
Father Francis McSpiritt  $                         380,000
Holy Spirit  $                         560,000
St. Isaac Jogues  $                         726,024
St. Patrick Sep S  $                      2,866,678
Calderstone M.S.  $                         298,676
Castlemore PS  $                         193,570
Claireville P.S.  $                         313,482
Eagle Plains P.S.  $                         224,978
Hewson P.S.  $                         321,291
Mount Royal PS  $                         100,199
Mountain Ash P.S.  $                         125,671
Red Willow PS  $                         290,795
Robert J Lee PS  $                      3,018,126
Sandalwood Heights S.S.  $                         572,200
Shaw P.S.  $                            76,352
Stanley Mills PS  $                         168,440
Sunny View M.S.  $                         189,163
Thorndale P.S.  $                         124,265
Treeline P.S.  $                         485,547

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

MPP Singh: $230.6-M of Disrepair in Brampton Centre Schools

December 10, 2020

Dear MPP Singh,

Did you know that there is $230.6-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Brampton Centre? We commend you for signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election, and making the personal commitment to ensure all Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.

In 2018 MPP Singh signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge to create a Standard of Good Repair for Ontario schools

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $16.3-billion repair backlog (as at November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Brampton Centre:

ÉÉP Carrefour des jeunes  $                            42,353
Cardinal Newman Catholic S  $                      2,828,354
Father C W Sullivan S  $                      3,143,824
Georges Vanier Sep S  $                      2,872,326
Holy Name of Mary (Glenvale Campus)  $                      1,932,640
St. Anne Sep S  $                      4,684,929
St. Anthony (replacement)  $                            30,000
St. Cecilia (shared with DSB19)  $                         758,472
St. Jean Brebeuf Sep S  $                      2,524,778
St. Joachim Sep S  $                      3,243,014
St. John Fisher Sep S  $                      3,703,547
Aloma Crescent PS  $                      2,677,530
Arnott Charlton  $                      1,867,976
Balmoral Drive Sr PS  $                      5,368,463
Birchbank PS  $                      3,232,863
Bramalea SS  $                    26,717,176
Central Peel SS  $                    22,863,836
Chinguacousy SS  $                    21,342,773
Clark Boulevard PS  $                      4,303,577
Dorset Drive PS  $                      2,672,296
Earnscliffe Sr PS  $                      9,459,302
Eastbourne Drive PS  $                      4,491,817
Fallingdale PS  $                      4,106,275
Folkstone PS  $                      3,673,367
Goldcrest PS  $                      4,045,567
Gordon Graydon Sr PS  $                      3,562,594
Greenbriar MS  $                      5,396,204
Grenoble PS  $                      3,890,110
Hanover PS  $                      3,561,171
Harold F Loughin PS  $                      1,088,284
Jefferson PS  $                      4,189,974
Judith Nyman SS  $                    15,509,811
Kingswood Drive PS  $                      2,459,704
Madoc Drive PS  $                      2,282,610
Sir John A Macdonald Sr PS  $                      5,135,926
Turner Fenton SS North  $                    19,952,616
Turner Fenton SS South  $                    16,236,386
Westervelts Corners P.S.  $                         758,472
Williams Parkway Sr PS  $                      4,028,847

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We commend you for personally signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge leading up to the June election and ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure. Please take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

The Silver Lining: More Fresh Air in Classrooms

December 8, 2020

In this COVID-pandemic, science tells us that being outdoors is the safest place and, when students, teachers, and education workers need to be inside classrooms, the next best thing is lots of fresh air. In the June 2020 SickKids entitled, “COVID-19: Recommendations for School Reopening”,  proper ventilation was cited as an important element of a safe return to school.

“Adequately ventilated classroom environments (e.g. open windows with air flow, and improved airflow through ventilation systems) are expected to be associated with less likelihood of transmission compared with poorly ventilated settings.”

By early August 2020, the Public Health Agency of Canada had issued its own guidelines for safe school reopenings, which also clearly outlined the importance of good ventilation. It called upon schools to increase ventilation by opening windows when possible, and increasing air exchanges by adjusting HVAC systems. 

Prior to the pandemic, $16.3-billion of disrepair existed in Ontario’s publicly funded schools. Across the province, there were (and are!) classrooms with no windows, windows that do not open at all or that only open a tiny bit, and some older schools and portables without HVAC systems to bring in fresh air from outside. Add to this reality, the lack of provincial funding – the only source of funding for schools and education in Ontario – and one can appreciate the challenging position in which Ontario’s school boards found themselves over the summer. In fact, only in late August did Ontario’s Education Minister Lecce announce a mere $50-million in provincial funding for school boards to use to improve ventilation in schools to prevent transmission of COVID-19.

Ontario’s school boards took health advice about improving ventilation very seriously. Knowing that they would be held accountable if ventilation was not improved in their schools by September, they began work well before the provincial government had made a commitment to fund this required work.  The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) clearly and transparently shares the steps taken to ensure proper ventilation in its classrooms, even including specific reports on each school. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) also worked over the summer to review and improve ventilation and increase the volume of fresh air. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) was also inspecting schools and ventilation systems over the summer to ensure they’re functioning as designed, and making repairs as required. The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) even went so far over the summer as to modify vertical sliding windows, as needed, to increase the opening from 4 inches to 12 inches, acknowledging the important role of natural ventilation provided through opening windows.

Fast forward to September 2020. Many of Ontario’s students did return to classrooms. However, a significant percentage of families (particularly in areas hardest hit by COVID) opted for at-home learning, feeling that amidst high community spread – a return to in-class learning was simply not a safe or healthy choice. Despite the inevitable COVID cases that have emerged in Ontario’s schools since September, in-class learning has been able to continue. Amidst the second wave, and heading into colder months, ventilation continues to be a critical component of limiting transmission of COVID in classrooms.

Toronto Public Health issued a revised COVID Fact Sheet in early November, which is being used by both the TDSB and the Toronto Catholic Board (TCDSB) to inform their COVID protocols, including those related to ventilation. The TDSB has been extremely transparent about its assessments of all classrooms to determine whether they benefited from mechanical ventilation, or would be receiving a HEPA Unit to provide a degree of mechanical ventilation to augment natural ventilation in that classroom.

The TDSB also recently sent the following email to all families, emphasizing the importance of ventilation through both mechanical and natural means in the coming months:

“Dear Parents and Guardians,

The TDSB continues to do everything we can to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Daily self-assessments, regular hand washing, mask-wearing, and physical distancing are some of the most important things we can do. In addition, according to Toronto Public Health, increasing fresh air is an important strategy in our schools and classrooms.

Over the past few months, the TDSB has checked all mechanical HVAC systems to ensure they are operating as designed, increased the frequency of filter changes, adjusted systems to increase the amount of fresh air and reduce recirculation, added portable HEPA air filter units in classrooms where mechanical ventilation is not an option, and opened windows where possible.

As we head into the colder months of the year, open windows will continue to be an important step to increase fresh air in classrooms and schools. Toronto Public Health is recommending that windows in classrooms should be opened for a period of time, at different points of the day to introduce fresh air into the space and increase airflow. While heating systems will be turned up, we still expect that schools will be cooler than normal.

We recognize it is very much a balance between introducing more ventilation at various times during the day and maintaining a comfortable indoor air temperature in classrooms. Please keep this in mind as your child gets ready for school each day by considering an extra layer of clothing to ensure comfort throughout the day.”

Looking outside of Canada, Fix Our Schools noted that the German Environment Agency (UBA) has provided a detailed instruction manual for ventilation in schools, recommending that classrooms ought to be aired regularly every 20 minutes for about 5 minutes with the windows wide open, which ensures the air is completely swapped for fresh air from outside three times an hour. In fact, the practice of opening windows for fresh air for several minutes, known as Lüftung in German, is something of a national obsession in the country.

Experts in indoor air quality such as Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto, note that ensuring good indoor air quality can help reduce the transmission of COVID-19. He also notes that even once we move past this global pandemic, “there is overwhelming evidence that addressing ventilation in schools improves academic performance, decreases absenteeism, and reduces asthma. When you total up all the economic benefits, it’s an economic no-brainer.”

With all of this in mind, Fix Our Schools suggests that Ontario’s students, teachers, and education workers would be well-served by a concerted effort to optimize indoor air quality through a combination of mechanical and natural ventilation. We would also suggest that without a provincially funded program in place to test classroom air quality regularly, we will never know for certain the quality of indoor air in our classrooms.

 

MPP Yarde: $76.4-M of Disrepair in Brampton North Schools

December 3, 2020

Dear MPP Yarde,

Did you know there is $76.4-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Brampton North? We commend you for signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election, and making the personal commitment to ensure all Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Brampton North:

Good Shepherd  $                         644,904
Notre Dame  $                      4,120,224
Our Lady of Providence ES  $                      1,546,350
Sacred Heart Sep S  $                      1,960,662
St. Agnes Sep S  $                      2,143,380
St. John Bosco S  $                      2,769,327
St. Leonard Sep S  $                      1,472,025
St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Sep S  $                      1,239,600
St. Marguerite d’Youville  $                      1,774,500
St. Rita  $                         915,000
St. Stephen Sep S  $                      1,387,189
St. Thomas Aquinas Sep S  $                      4,404,980
Carberry PS  $                         187,735
Conestoga PS  $                      2,660,737
Esker Lake PS  $                      2,494,244
Fernforest P.S.  $                         355,860
Great Lakes P.S.  $                         507,570
Harold M. Brathwaite SS  $                      1,453,190
Heart Lake SS  $                      8,292,878
Hilldale PS  $                      2,837,372
Larkspur P.S.  $                      1,934,188
Lougheed M.S.  $                         183,534
Louise Arbour SS  $                            23,400
Massey PS  $                      2,793,195
North Park SS  $                    14,922,448
Robert H Lagerquist Sr PS  $                      3,290,141
Russell D Barber PS  $                      3,213,469
Somerset Drive PS  $                      2,160,790
Springdale PS  $                         658,635
Terry Fox PS  $                      2,642,953
ÉÉC SainteJeanned’Arc  $                      1,360,455

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We commend you for personally signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge leading up to the June election and ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure. Please take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Who is Ontario’s Auditor-General and Why Do We Care?

December 1, 2020

Ontario’s Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk and her office made the news this week after the release of a scathing report on our provincial government’s COVID-19 preparedness and management thus far.

So who is Ontario’s Auditor-General? What is the Auditor-General office’s purpose and role? Why is it that sometimes Premier Ford loves what the Auditor-General Office says and sometimes he does not? As per their website, the Office of the Auditor-General of Ontario:

  • Is an independent, non-partisan Office of the Legislative Assembly that serves both Members of Provincial Parliament and the people of Ontario.
  • Plays an important role in holding provincial public-sector and broader-public-sector organizations accountable for financial responsibility, well-managed programs, and transparency in public reporting.
  • Audits Crown corporations and organizations in the broader public sector that receive provincial funding, such as hospitals and long-term-care homes, universities and colleges, and school boards.

Since our inception in 2014, the Fix Our Schools campaign has often cited Auditor-General reports that examined school infrastructure.

The Auditor-General’s December 2015 report was particularly informative to our campaign, as it clearly identified that:

Fix Our Schools was able to leverage this 2015 Auditor-General report to convince the provincial government to:

Since the 2015 Ontario Auditor-General’s report, the only other time that Ontario’s public school infrastructure has been considered was in 2018, when her office looked into Ministry of Education funding, in general. The 2018 report noted that when it comes to funding education in Ontario, the Ministry of Education “does not allocate funding based on actual needs”.

Here we are now in December 2020, five years from when the Ontario Auditor-General first delved into school infrastructure and identified many necessary steps to ensure that Ontario’s students attend schools that are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings. What do we know today?

  • Despite yearly provincial funding of $1.4-B/year for school repair and renewal, the overall repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has grown year over year since 2015, and is now at least $16.3-B.
  • The $16.3-B of disrepair identified in Ontario’s school buildings does not include any disrepair in portables.
  • The Ford government refuses to provide transparency into this disrepair because it has not yet updated and released school disrepair and FCI data since taking office in 2018.
  • There is still no standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools so we don’t even know what “success” looks like for these critical buildings.
  • The criticality of school buildings has become increasingly evident, as we have realized that we cannot chronically and grossly underfund infrastructure, and then realistically count on it to keep people safe in the midst of a global pandemic.

Fix Our Schools has no idea when the Ontario Auditor-General might delve into Ontario’s public school infrastructure again. However, we urge her office to do so very soon and to properly serve the people of Ontario – especially the 2-million children and thousands of educators and education workers who spend their days in school buildings – we urge her office to hold the provincial government to account for the ongoing failure to fix Ontario’s schools.

MPP Sarkaria: $107.8-M of Disrepair in Brampton South Schools

November 26, 2020

Dear MPP Sarkaria,

Did you know there is $107.8-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Brampton South? We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Brampton South:

ÉSP Jeunes sans frontières  $                         175,610
Bishop Francis Allen  $                         859,456
Cardinal Leger SS  $                      8,073,332
Our Lady of Fatima  $                      3,172,312
Pauline Vanier Catholic E S  $                      1,415,210
St. Augustine SS  $                      3,186,800
St. Brigid Sep S  $                      3,031,663
St. Francis Xavier ElemReplacement  $                         550,000
St. Kevin Sep S  $                      3,443,441
St. Mary Sep S (Brampton)  $                      1,626,975
St. Monica  $                      1,225,376
Agnes Taylor PS  $                      2,808,753
Brampton Centennial SS  $                    24,848,864
Centennial Sr PS  $                      8,001,102
Cherrytree PS  $                      5,917,603
Copeland PS  $                            44,442
Fletcher’s Creek Sr. PS  $                      2,131,430
Glendale PS  $                      3,322,463
Helen Wilson PS  $                      4,496,236
Hickory Wood PS  $                      3,632,858
James Potter P.S.  $                         274,120
McHugh PS  $                      3,774,257
Morton Way PS  $                      2,375,263
Parkway PS  $                      2,998,592
Peel Alternative School North  $                      3,780,634
Queen Street PS  $                         334,924
Ridgeview PS  $                      2,407,474
Roberta Bondar P.S.  $                         160,720
Sir Wilfrid Laurier PS  $                      3,766,633
Sir William Gage Middle School  $                         122,372
Sir Winston Churchill PS  $                      3,225,635
W.G. Davis Sr PS  $                      2,584,546

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors.