Tag Archives: TDSB

How the Country’s Largest School Board is Handling the Issue of Lead in Water at Schools

November 21, 2019

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is the largest school board in Canada so we were curious to learn more about how this school board handles the issue of lead in drinking water at its schools. When we inquired, we heard back that:

Each year, as required under Ontario legislation, the TDSB conducts testing for lead in drinking water. This legislation was amended in 2017 and requires school boards to test all sources of drinking water in every school for the presence of lead over a 5 year period. Over the last 3 years, the TDSB has conducted testing on every fixture used for drinking water and/or food preparation in every elementary school and will complete testing at the secondary level by fall 2021. Ontario legislation permits us to finish by 2022. Based on those test results, the Board is required to undertake a number of potential strategies to ensure that the water in schools is safe to drink. The primary strategy used is daily/weekly flushing of fixtures. However, we also replace fixtures as required.

Furthermore, we heard back that:

All exceedances are reported to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation & Parks (MECP) within 24 hours.
Corrective actions are taken immediately for each exceedance and reported to the local Public Health Unit and the MECP.
When an exceedance impacts the entire plumbing system, the school is provided with alternative drinking water (e.g. bottled water) and parents are notified.
When there is an exceedance in the standing sample, that specific fixture will be flushed daily. When there is an exceedance in the flushed sample, the fixture is taken out of service immediately to eliminate any further risk to occupants of the building. Re-sampling or replacement of the fixture is done in accordance with the standards set out by Ontario Regulation 243/07. If permanent removal of the fixture is recommended, this is reviewed with the head caretaker and principal.

Of note is that the TDSB must follow provincial guidelines for lead in water, which allow for up to 10 parts per billion (ppb) of lead whereas the federal guidelines are more stringent and allow for only up to 5 ppb. Therefore, it seems evident that Ontario ought to make some changes to its guidelines to ensure they are as stringent as the federal guidelines in place.

We found the following on the TDSB website, which provides additional detail to the responses provided above. We’d encourage parents in other school boards to find out how their local school board handles the issue of lead in water at schools and send us details!

Drinking-Water Safety in Schools from TDSB Website:

The City of Toronto’s water treatment facilities are some of the best in the world. Designated drinking water sources in our schools are safe to drink and are tested on a regular basis, according to provincial regulations.

Samples are collected between May 1 and October 31 each year as per Ontario Regulation 243/07. All samples are analyzed by an independent laboratory certified by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP). Based on sampling results, a variety of corrective actions are taken, which may include more frequent flushing at individual fixtures or throughout the entire school. From time to time, a drinking water source may be taken out of service to conduct upgrades or make repairs to the fixture/tap. The vast majority of TDSB schools have no reported lead exceedances in their drinking water. When exceedances occur, they are dealt with immediately and corrective action is taken. In Ontario, results over 10 ug/L (micrograms per liter) or ppb (parts per billion) of lead are considered exceedances. Health Canada recommends 5 ug/L (or ppb). Ontario schools are subject to Ontario standards. Please see the Questions and Answers below for more information on drinking water in TDSB Schools.

What is a “designated drinking water source”?

Designated drinking water sources are water sources designated for consumption such as:

- Water fountains
- Bottle filling stations
- Taps in kitchens, food preparation areas, staff rooms, and childcare areas

Is the water in TDSB schools safe to drink?

Yes, drinking water in our schools is safe to drink. We follow Ontario Ministry regulations by testing our drinking water sources for levels of lead and flushing our plumbing on a regular basis to ensure the highest quality of drinking water.

What is the process for testing drinking water sources?

As per our protocol and according to provincial regulations, the TDSB tests drinking water sources for lead at its 582 schools on an annual basis. This is in addition to the water testing conducted by the City of Toronto.

In order to test the water, two samples are taken: one is a “standing water” sample, which is taken from the tap/bottle filling stations after all the water has been sitting for a minimum of six hours. The other is a “flushed” sample that is taken after running the tap/bottle filling stations for a minimum of five minutes and letting it sit for 30 minutes. Samples are sent to an independent lab certified by MECP.

What happens if there is an exceedance?

When there is an exceedance in the ”flushed” sample, the fixture is taken out of service to eliminate any further risk to occupants of the building. Re-sampling or replacement of the fixture is done in accordance with the standards set out by Ontario Regulation 243/07.

When there is an exceedance in the standing sample, that specific fixture will be flushed daily.

The TDSB ensures a safe drinking water source is available within the school while individual fixture exceedances are being investigated or addressed. In Ontario, results over 10 ug/L (micrograms per liter) or ppb (parts per billion) of lead are considered exceedances. Health Canada recommends 5 ug/L (or ppb). When measuring exceedances, the Toronto Star used Health Canada, not the Ontario benchmark. Ontario schools are subject to Ontario regulations.

How often are drinking water sources flushed at TDSB schools?

Based on sampling results specific to your school, there are three options:

- The school conducts weekly flushing on Mondays.
- The school conducts weekly flushing on Mondays, and specific individual fixtures require daily flushing.
- The school conducts daily flushing, Monday through Friday.

Does the TDSB inform parents when there is an exceedance?

The provincial government doesn’t require school boards to notify parents in case of exceedances. However, when an exceedance impacts the entire plumbing system and the school is placed on an alternative drinking water method (e.g. water bottles), principals notify parents. These cases are rare as usually, only individual fixtures are impacted.

When an individual fixture is impacted (e.g. it needs to be replaced) and it is taken out of service, the school principal is informed, but no notification will be sent to parents. However, the TDSB will ensure that all students have access to a water source nearby. In either instance, the principal is notified and a corrective action taken.

Why is it important to test drinking water sources for lead?

Lead found in tap water usually comes from the corrosion of older fixtures or the solder that connects pipes. In certain circumstances, extended contact between standing water and these components can cause the lead to be released from the pipes.

When the tap is turned on, water that has been standing in the pipes may have accumulated lead levels that exceed Ontario’s standard for lead.

Recent media coverage on safe drinking water suggested that the City’s advice to residents to “flush” water in their homes before testing it may not provide a true representation of lead exposure. Some experts have suggested that testing should be done before flushing for more accurate results. While flushing usually washes residual lead away, flushing before testing may not alert residents to lead residue in the water. What does the TDSB do to get the most accurate results?

The media was referring to the advice the City provides for residential water systems (e.g. home or apartment dweller). Schools and childcare centres are held to a much higher standard of testing and flushing than residential water systems, and testing is governed by rigorous procedures set out in government legislation and regulations. The procedures are as follows:

The collection, analysis and reporting around lead sampling is overseen by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and very clearly outlined within Ontario Regulation 243/07.

TDSB follows the sampling process as outlined within the Ontario legislation.

- Water sits a minimum of 6 hours
- 1^st sample is collected before flushing (standing water)
- Flush 5 min, let it sit for 30 minutes
- 2^nd sample (after flushing) is collected (flushed water)
- In circumstances where lead is detected through the analysis, the standing sample usually shows a higher concentration, demonstrating that the flushing is in fact doing the job of washing the residual lead in the system away.

What are the changes introduced by the provincial government in 2017?

On July 1, 2017, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) formerly known as the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change amended Ontario Regulation 243/07 (Schools, Private Schools and Child Care Centres) under the Safe Drinking Water Act , introducing new requirements for the testing of drinking water sources.

Under previous provincial legislation, the TDSB tested nearly 600 fixtures each year. Under the revised regulation (Ontario Reg. 243/07), approximately 11,000 fixtures need to be tested. As a result, the Board has identified which fixtures were for drinking water or food preparation and which were not.

The TDSB, similar to other school boards, decided that, for testing purposes, most classroom taps would not be designated as drinking water sources for consumption. It’s important to note that all students have access to a nearby safe drinking water source.

As part of the amendments to Ontario Regulation 243/07, schools boards are required to sample all designated drinking water fixtures over a period of three years for elementary schools and five years for high schools. Once the three or five-year period is over, and unless new amendments to the regulation are introduced, school boards will be required to sample a minimum of one fixture per school, per year.

Why are the “Handwashing only” signs displayed on some fixtures?

While the source of water is the same throughout the building, the “Handwashing only” signs are a visual indicator that these fixtures are not considered ‘drinking water sources’ and are not tested for lead. Instead, these fixtures/taps are to be used for handwashing and other classroom purposes only (e.g. washing brushes used in art classes or lab pipes).

Hand washing poster with the words

Where can I find the water test results for my child’s school?

All sampling results are kept in the ‘Flushing and Sampling for Lead in Drinking Water Systems’ binder in the head caretaker’s office. It provides information on the location of designated drinking water sources in the school as well as test results. Parents can request from the principal to review this binder on-site at any time.

Who can I contact for additional information?

If you have questions regarding drinking water in our schools, please contact your child’s school.

Additional information on water sampling results can also be found in the ‘Flushing of Drinking Water Systems’ binder at your school which can be accessed through the principal, during normal school hours

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”.

“It could have been catastrophic”

November 18, 2018

Thankfully, nobody was injured after part of a pedestrian bridge collapsed in Toronto’s east end early Saturday morning, leaving a gaping hole and sending concrete to the ground. The bridge is 5 metres above the ground and is used by many children and parents to get to Crescent Town Elementary School.

“Mercifully it happened on a weekend morning and there were no kids or parents on or under it & no injuries,” Beaches-East York MPP Rima Berns-McGown tweeted. “It could have been catastrophic.”

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) shares maintenance of the bridge with Pinedale Properties. According to CityTV, the part of the bridge that collapsed is owned by Pinedale. The TDSB has advised parents that the bridge is not accessible until further notice as it works with Pinedale properties to determine next steps.

For almost five years now, Fix Our Schools has been asking if Ontario’s infrastructure is safe for school children and if Ontario’s publicly-funded schools are safe for school children.

Malvern Collegiate Institute in Beaches-East York, needs $20.4-million in repairs. The urgent repairs this school building needs include new roofs, foundation, staircase repairs and replacement of fire protection systems, including sprinklers. With almost $16-billion of outstanding repairs in Ontario schools, of which $205.6-million exists in Beaches-East York schools, it is hard to imagine that some schools aren’t “accidents waiting to happen”.

All parties involved in building and maintaining any infrastructure – especially infrastructure used by children – must work together to ensure a high standard of safety and maintenance.

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.

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 →

TDSB Repair Backlog hits $3.7 billion

November 10, 2017

Fix Our Schools is thrilled to see the ongoing transparency into the magnitude of disrepair in Ontario’s school buildings. Today, in this press release, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has released its annual school-by-school Facility Condition Index (FCI) rating of its 584 school buildings, as well as the repair backlog for each school. The format of this information allows parents and communities to easily understand the condition of local schools and the repairs that are outstanding.

Like all school boards in Ontario, the TDSB has been grossly and chronically underfunded by the provincial government.

Even with increased provincial funding in recent years, there is simply not enough money for school boards to keep pace with the accumulated backlog and future repair needs. As evidence of this, the TDSB’s repair backlog increased from $3.5 billion in September 2016 to $3.7 billion in September 2017.

Without adequate and predictable funding for school repairs, disrepair in TDSB schools will continue growing to an estimated $5.25 billion by 2021. Continue reading →

Yet another example of how disrepair impacts Ontario students and teachers…

October 16, 2017

On October 13, 2017, CBC reported on “Health worries at Regal Road P.S. after construction drags on”. The article raises concerns about the health of students and teachers at Regal Road Junior Public School, as construction work drags on well into the school year to replace the school’s furnace and deal with associated asbestos removal.

Parent Council member Stephanie Ayers says, “There’s been an increase in absences. For students that have breathing issues, asthma and that kind of thing, they are definitely having trouble. There’s one child in my son’s class who has gone home early every single day. Kids have been wheezing and coughing and at least one staff member at the school has been off since the end of September because of respiratory problems. Another child who has acute asthma ended up in hospital for four days and three nights, only to end up back in a hospital ER within 24 hours. That child has been kept home by the parent ever since.” Continue reading →

Community hubs: a real possibility or a pipe dream?

February 18, 2017

Community hubs demand co-operation and collaboration between multiple levels of government: the provincial government, municipalities, and school boards.

Only two out of these three levels of government have the power to access money via taxes and user fees – the provincial government and municipalities. And let’s be honest, the Province has the lion’s share of the power and ability to access money! Municipalities come in second place, when it comes to power and ability to access money… and school boards fall a distant third.

The fact is that school boards have very little power and almost no access to money beyond what is provided by the provincial funding formula for education. In some special instances, money comes to school boards from municipalities based on special agreements.

Case in point… the City of Toronto and the Toronto District School Board have an agreement where the city funds the operation of certain school pools and, in return, it is given exclusive use of these pools in the evenings, on weekends and during summer break. The city’s Parks and Recreation department can use this time to provide swimming lessons and open swim times for the local community. This agreement between a school board and a municipality has been a great example of multiple levels of government working together to create community hubs.

However, as Robin Pilkey, Chair of the TDSB, outlines in a February 15, 2017 Toronto Star editorial entitled,“City must commit to help fund school pools: Pilkey”, the City has cut funding to eleven pools since 2007. The TDSB has kept these pools open since it believed these community pools were important to students and families. However, the TDSB has not received funding from either City or Province to fund these pools. Therefore, money to keep these pools open has been allocated at the expense of fixing schools. These are tough decisions to have been made by the School Board.

“Caught between a rock and hard place” seems an apt description. Close these community pools and see community outrage; or keep these community pools open at the expense of making much-needed repairs in other schools.

In recent days, Toronto Mayor John Tory has said the City of Toronto will cut funding to an additional three pools in order to save money. He announced this without any discussion or meeting with the TDSB, and then has claimed the TDSB will be able to keep these pools open, even without city funding.

At the beginning of this post, we talked about each level of government’s access to power and money. Let’s now examine the issue of accountability. Ironically, when it comes to education, school boards end up with the lion’s share of accountability, even though their power and access to money is very limited. In contrast, municipalities and the provincial government are quick to shirk responsibility for anything to do with education and publicly funded schools, consistently pointing back to school boards bearing the responsibility.

We’re hoping this dynamic seems as odd to you as it does to us. Shouldn’t power and accountability reside in the same place? Community hubs will only be a pipe dream if those levels of government with the most power and access to money take no responsibility for how their decisions impact Ontario citizens and communities.

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.