Tag Archives: TDSB

Lots of work done over the summer at Ontario public schools!

September 9, 2015

According to TDSB Ward 11 Trustee Shelley Laskin’s recent e-newsletter, lots of work has happened this past summer to improve the state of TDSB schools, including 118 roofing projects across TDSB schools since March. If you have examples of work that was done at schools near you – no matter where you live in Ontario – please share with us.

Below is a detailed list of the many facilities projects that were completed in TDSB Ward 11 schools over the summer, which is just a small glimpse into all the facilities projects that were completed across all 72 Ontario public school boards:

JR Wilcox received solar panels on its roof.
Renovations to increase the number of available classrooms were undertaken at Brown, Deer Park and McMurrich.
The field was re-sodded at Davisville and the turf was repaired at Maurice Cody.
Brick work was done at Deer Park
Stairs were repaired at McMurrich as well as at Northern.
Northern also had issues with its hot water tanks and they are being replaced.
FHCI had its pool repaired and significant repairs to the pool at Deer Park should be completed by the end of October.
Caretaking staff worked diligently over the summer cleaning and polishing and mowing.

A good reminder that a lot of work does get done over the summer at our children’s schools! Still a lot to do to deal with $15-billion of needed repairs in Ontario’s public schools but encouraging to hear specific projects nonetheless.

TDSB Chair Robin Pilkey on Community Hubs

August 25, 2015

On August 10, the provincially appointed Advisory Group led by Karen Pitre issued a report entitled, “Community Hubs in Ontario: A Strategic Framework and Action Plan”.

On August 12, the TDSB elected new Chair Robin Pilkey, who made the following comments about the Community Hubs report in her acceptance speech:

Just this week, we have received the report and recommendations of the Premier’s Community Hubs Framework Advisory Group. At first glance, the advisory group seems headed in the right direction. The TDSB has been a leader in creating community hubs in our schools.

But our experience tells us that the promise of community hubs will require radical change in provincial funding to support community services and activities in schools.

The report is also a reminder to all of our community partners that where and when it makes sense to close or sell a school, the TDSB must receive fair compensation as we continue to face pressing needs to repair our schools and in some cases build more school space where enrolment is booming.

That being said, the TDSB looks forward to participating in the creation of a new provincial framework for the community use of schools.

CTV features growing TDSB repair backlog

August 15, 2015

CTV featured August 14 as a “sad day for the TDSB” – the day when the repair backlog in its schools grew to exceed $3.5-billion. Trustee Ken Lister has been tracking the growing repair backlog on his website and CTV felt it was important to highlight this issue (again!) for its viewers to mark this “dubious milestone”. CTV approached Fix Our Schools for photos of disrepair so you may see a photo that you sent to us in the TV clip.

What was not included in the TV clip above were a lot of the details below – which didn’t make it to air!

– The Province provides the funding for maintaining schools. Under their watch, $3.5-billion of disrepair has accumulated in TDSB schools and $15-billion of disrepair has accumulated in public schools across the province. Every single one of Ontario’s 72 school boards has a repair backlog.

– While many people blame Principals and Trustees for the disrepair in our schools, the funding for maintaining schools comes from our provincial government. School boards must strive to be as efficient and effective as possible with the money provided by the Province. However, over the past 20 years, there simply has not been sufficient money provided by our provincial government to ensure our public schools are kept in good repair.

– In 2014-15, the province provided only $2.27 to the TDSB for every $100 of repairs needed. No matter how efficient or effective a school board is, there is simply no way that $100 of disrepair can be fixed with $2.27!

– For 2015-16, the Province has substantially increased its funding to school boards for maintenance, acknowledging that the $15-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s public schools is a problem. However, even with this large increase in funding, TDSB Trustees and Staff will have to figure out how to fix $3.5-billion of repairs with about $156-million – the equivalent of less than $5 for every $100 of much-needed repairs. This is clearly an impossible task and so the repair backlog in our children’s schools will continue to grow.

– The time is now for the Province to acknowledge public schools as a critical part of our societal infrastructure and start working with school boards to find ongoing, sustainable sources of funding to ensure that children and communities benefit from public schools that are well-maintained.

New TDSB Chair sees collaboration as key

August 13, 2015

Robin Pilkey, a Professional Chartered Accountant, became Chair of Canada’s largest school board this week. She is optimistic about the TDSB’s ability to meet the challenges that lie ahead and sees collaboration – with TDSB Staff, with the Province, and with parents – as key.

In her acceptance speech on August 12, Pilkey noted that TDSB Trustees have a responsibility to work closely with TDSB Staff to deliver high quality education in a financially responsible manner. Pilkey also mentioned the importance of the TDSB’s relationship with the provincial government, noting that the Province must work with the TDSB to ensure a sustainable financial base for our public education system. The Ward 7 Trustee also noted the importance of parent advocacy, citing the parent-led Fix Our Schools campaign as having made an incredible contribution towards the improvement of provincial funding for school repairs.

Trustees: “Perhaps no political office is more important”

August 9, 2015

Sachin Maharaj is a PhD student in educational policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto and is a teacher in the Toronto District School Board. She wrote the following opinion piece for the Toronto Star, which was published August 6:

Kim Campbell, Mike Harris, Kathleen Wynne, and Olivia Chow. What do all of these politicians have in common? They are members of a long and ever-growing list of former school trustees who left their school boards for other (some would say higher) political office.

And now you can add Shaun Chen, the chair of the Toronto District School Board, to that list. Chen recently resigned his post as leader of Canada’s largest school board, less than a year after assuming the position, in order to run for the Liberals in the upcoming federal election. And trustees don’t just leave for Ottawa. Both Toronto City Hall and Queen’s Park contain several former school trustees. So why is it that so many people abandon their jobs as school trustees and instead seem to use the position as a political launching pad?

One big reason is that despite being structured by the province as a quasi-volunteer position, being a good school trustee is a lot of work. According to my own recent study, the average school trustee in Ontario spends about 20 hours per week responding to parent concerns, visiting schools, attending parent councils, on top of official board and committee meetings.

In large school boards, like the TDSB, this time commitment extends to over 30 hours per week. But despite requiring the hours of between half to three-quarters of a full-time job, trustees are paid a pittance. The average trustee in Ontario gets paid $11,468, which works out to around minimum wage on an hourly basis. Is it any wonder then that so many leave?

Of course some critics might say that trustees are not expected to subsist on the meagre compensation they receive, but are instead expected to have other full-time employment. But given the time demands of the role, most trustees report that this is “almost impossible.” Indeed, only one-third of school trustees are employed full-time. As one trustee put it, “I could not do this job if I were employed professionally.” Another indicated that they had “left a part time-job due to time commitment as trustee.” And as most of a trustee’s work takes place in the evenings, this can take a toll on family life as well. One trustee sadly recounted, “My children miss me. I rarely see them in the evenings during the week.”

But another reason that many trustees leave is due to increased feelings of impotence, as provincial governments of all stripes have stripped away more and more of their autonomy.

It started when the Harris government removed the ability of school boards to levy tax increases to fund local needs. While this benefited smaller, rural school boards with less ability to raise money, it has been a disaster for the TDSB, which currently faces a repair backlog of over $3 billion. The Wynne government continued this trend of undermining school boards with the introduction of Regulation 274, which removed the ability of boards to hire the best teachers. Indeed, in a recent survey of over 2,000 principals from across Ontario, over 94 per cent stated that Regulation 274 had prevented them from hiring teachers that best meet the needs of their school and its students.

So if we want to attract the highest quality candidates as school trustees, and prevent them from jumping ship, the solution is obvious. We need to pay trustees well, treat them with respect and give them the autonomy they require to best serve the students in their communities.

Then perhaps more people will be school trustees solely because they care about the job, instead of seeing it as a stepping stone. And given that the job of school trustees is overseeing the education of our children, perhaps no political office is more important.

“School should be a second home to students – not a place where boilers break down, ceilings fall in and toilets break”

July 27, 2015

From Spencer Higdon-McGreal, Grade 12 TDSB Student at Ursula Franklin:

In school there are many things students learn to adapt to: peer pressure, the stress of looming deadlines, the anticipation of summer break and, trying to stay focused while your school is crumbling around you. For many students in the Toronto District School Board, decay and subsequent lack of working mechanics, electronics, structure is known all too well. As a grade 12 student, I have been in three different schools over a span of 14 years: Garden Ave. P.S. for JK-Grade 6, Fern Ave. P.S. for Grade 7-8 and Ursula Franklin Academy for Grades 9-12. I’ve seen first-hand how desperately our schools need repairs.

For the past four years at my high school I cannot remember a winter when our boiler didn’t break at least once, sometimes for multiple days, leaving students freezing and unable to focus. Now this is a big enough problem on its own, but when I add the fact that this happened almost every winter over my 14 years at school it become inexcusable! I remember a couple of years ago sitting in a classroom with every student and the teacher, wearing their outdoor winter clothing. No one was able to focus during the whole class – we certainly struggled to take notes while wearing gloves!

School should be a second home to students, not a place where boilers break down, ceilings fall in, and toilets break! Today’s students are tomorrow’s future leaders and contributors, and they need and deserve the best education they can get. With the enormous amount of problems in our schools, students aren’t given the best. The Ontario government can do better, and must do better.

When will TDSB Governance Panel issue recommendations?

July 17, 2015

Fix Our Schools sent the following letter to the TDSB Governance Panel on Monday, July 13:

Dear TDSB Governance Panel,

We continue to be concerned that the TDSB Governance Panel did not consider how provincial funding and provincial policies impact the governance of the TDSB. Upon reading the scathing review of Donna Quan’s leadership by Margaret Wilson, among others, in Friday’s Globe & Mail, we are also concerned that the TDSB Governance consultations did not examine the important role that leadership plays in TDSB’s governance. Instead, the TDSB Governance consultations focused primarily on the role of TDSB Trustees and the size of the TDSB.

Given these concerns, we are anxious to hear your panel’s recommendations. Could you kindly let us know the date when you plan to issue those recommendations to Minister Sandals?

The Fix Our Schools campaign represents a large and growing number of parents in Toronto who want to see safe, well-maintained public schools. Of course, these same parents are also interested in good governance. However, every one of Ontario’s 72 public school boards has a capital repair backlog for a total of $14.7-billion, which suggests that something in the overall governance of public education in this province is simply not working and that additional funding sources must be found.

We trust that any recommendations made by the TDSB Governance Panel will:

• get to the heart of the issues at the TDSB

• respect the fact that this new board of Trustees has had scant time to actually govern

• keep the best interests of TDSB students and families in mind

Kind regards,

Krista Wylie – On Behalf of Fix Our Schools

Fix Our Schools will keep subscribers posted on what we hear back from the TDSB Governance Panel about their recommendations.

Ten years hence, TDSB schools continue to deteriorate

July 3, 2015

In October 2005, TDSB Staff wrote and presented “Schools for the Future: A 10 Year Facility Infrastructure Plan for the TDSB”, which painted a dire picture of the state of disrepair in TDSB schools and even suggested that schools may need to close due to disrepair.

Sections 2.2.1 & 2.2.2 of this report, “Current and Forecast Conditions of TDSB Facilities”, read as follows: “Putting off necessary renewal projects, year in and year out, has created a growing and costly backlog. There’s an increasing demand for facility maintenance and repairs as a result of deteriorating facility conditions. The numbers of calls for emergencies and unanticipated breakdowns are increasing. Requests for repairs account for 80% of work orders, while preventive maintenance now represents only 20% of work orders. The normal average wait time for maintenance requests is seven weeks. The Ministry of Education recognized the need for additional funding to correct deficiencies in building conditions. Increased funding for building renewal was distributed through a Ministry program called ‘Good Places to Learn.’ This renewal funding only temporarily halted the trend of deteriorating facility conditions. At the current level (2005) of renewal funding of $44 million annually, the condition of TDSB buildings will continue to decline rapidly, making it increasingly difficult to keep schools open.”

Almost ten years have passed since this report was prepared and TDSB schools continue to deteriorate. Although provincial funding for school repairs has increased since 2005 to $75-million/year for 2014/15 and will increase to $156-million in the 2015/16 school year, the money received by the TDSB to address the $3.3-billion of disrepair in its schools is still insufficient. To date, no TDSB schools have closed due to safety issues but one wonders what the next ten years will hold.

“My son’s classroom was twelve degrees this winter”

June 28, 2015

From Krista, parent of two children at Runnymede P.S., TDSB:

One day this winter, my grade three son told me about an interesting science experiment his class had done at school. Students had been given thermometers to measure the temperature of various classrooms in the school.

His response when I asked him what the temperature had been in his classroom?

“Twelve degrees celsius.”

When I commented that twelve degrees was pretty cold, he replied, “It’s OK Mom, we’ve been wearing our winter coats in class this past week.”

It is certainly NOT OK to have to wear winter coats while trying to learn and teach – but I admire the resilience of my son and his teacher to continue to learn and teach despite the learning and working conditions!

Teachers’ union goal is “building better schools”

June 21, 2015

The Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) is the Toronto-local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and represents more than 11,000 elementary teachers (K-8) employed by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

John Smith, President of the ETT, said in interviews and a press release this week that the goal of current negotiations with elementary teachers is “building better schools.” He went on to say that, “We’re talking about class sizes. We’re talking about the loss of special education teachers. We’re talking about school buildings that need repair.”

Great to hear that disrepair in school buildings is being talked about in this labour negotiation! Students and teachers deserve to learn and work in safe, well-maintained buildings.