Mayor Tory has urged the TDSB, the Province and the City to work together to take shared responsibility for public schools. Excellent.
Fingers crossed the City will come to the table with a willingness to think creatively and to contribute in a tangible way to public schools in Toronto. We sent Mayor Tory and all City Councillors a letter urging them to do just that.
Disappointed with the Provincial government’s latest response to Fix Our Schools, we sent the following letter to Premier Wynne and Minister Sandals today:
In your government’s February 4, 2015 response to Fix Our Schools, you tell us to discuss our concerns over safe, well-maintained schools with our Trustees, since they are the ones “who are elected by and accountable to the community that they serve”. In fact, you tell us four times in a 1-page letter that the TDSB Trustees are the ones who are responsible and accountable.
Last we checked your government is also elected and therefore accountable to its constituents. To that end, your government must start taking the responsibility that comes with having sole power over the funding of public education. Trustees are not magicians. The funding being provided by your government to the TDSB is insufficient. Please stop blaming the TDSB and start working together with them and the City of Toronto to ensure our children attend school in safe, well-maintained buildings.
You are the only level of government with the power to change the dysfunctional dynamic that is so eloquently described by Hugh Mackenzie in the quote below:
“The (Provincial) government is fully responsible for the level of funding provided but local school boards bear the consequences and are accountable for the results. Despite the government’s complete control over funding, there is no provincial accountability mechanism for the performance of and funding for the system as a whole.” – Hugh Mackenzie, “ Harris-era Hangovers: Toronto School Trustees’ Inherited Funding Shortfall”, Feb. 2015
On behalf of the 247,000 students being educated by Canada’s largest school board, please start engaging in real, ongoing dialogue with the TDSB and the City of Toronto to improve the funding and governance of the TDSB and ensure the success, well-being and safety of all its students. In the short-term, please:
TDSB parents expect real change in our school board. The TDSB Trustees have stepped up; the City of Toronto has stepped up; Kathleen Wynne – will you and your government please also step up and start working together to Fix Our Schools?
Kind regards,
Krista Wylie – on behalf of Fix Our Schools
In response to Margaret Wilson’s report and Minister Sandals’ subsequent directions to the TDSB, Fix Our Schools wrote to the Province and encourages parents to also write Premier Wynne & Minister Sandals
Fix Our Schools is requesting:
1. long-term, constructive help to the TDSB with real dialogue focused on real change
2. another external audit of the TDSB focused on the students and teachers to unearth all the ways that classrooms are being negatively impacted
3. emergency funding to fix roofs and address urgent repairs at TDSB schools
You can easily make the same requests by clicking the link above and adding your name, mailing address and TDSB school info to the bottom of the letter and cc:ing your MPP, who is your local voice to the Provincial government and your Trustee, who is your local voice to the TDSB.
The letters that many of you sent to the Provincial government this fall are being heard. Minister Liz Sandals has spoken publicly about our requests for money to fix roofs. These requests were also mentioned by Matt Galloway on Monday’s edition of CBC Metro Morning. There is power in parent advocacy so please take the time to write!
Some classrooms in the TDSB registered 15 degrees celsius last week (to give you context, Toronto by-laws demand a minimum of 21 degrees celsius for tenants!). The state of many TDSB schools is appalling: cold classrooms; leaking roofs; washrooms with no doors or working locks; and no soap in washrooms are all pretty standard fare across TDSB schools. However, Minister of Education Liz Sandals claims that the dysfunction of the TDSB has not yet impacted students. From Fix Our Schools’ perspective, it has been impacting students and their teachers for years! The $3.5 Billion of outstanding repairs and maintenance that the TDSB has been allowed to accumulate under the watchful eye of this Provincial government impacts the safety, success and well-being of our children every single day.
Fix Our Schools applauds Margaret Wilson’s work and was pleased to see the Province take strong action in directing the TDSB to implement all of Ms. Wilson’s recommendations in short order. We are optimistic that Margaret Wilson’s report and Minister Sandals’ directions are the first step towards the Province providing meaningful, long-term intervention to ensure the safety, success and well-being of our children. Ms. Wilson’s report states that the culture of fear referred to in the 2103 Ernst and Young Audit is even more pervasive now, demonstrating that short-term interventions by the Province have done nothing to improve the situation at the TDSB.
The fact that Minister Sandals does not see how students have already been impacted is extremely worrisome and may indicate that Margaret Wilson’s mandate was too narrow. Ms. Wilson’s report provides great insight into the top-down view of the TDSB but does not include a view of the situation from the ground-up – from a student’s perspective.
Given the facts above, nobody should be surprised that things aren’t going so well at the largest school board in Canada and that the question of whether we need Trustees has been in the media of late.
The Star: Dump our Trustees and dissolve our school boards
Globe & Mail: Abolish the school boards
Ottawa Citizen: How to fix the school system
We look forward to hearing what Margaret Wilson recommends upon completing her external audit of the TDSB and whether a new form of governance might be in the cards.
Fix Our Schools called upon the Province to step in and help the TDSB and, surprisingly, they did – for a month anyways.
We also asked Premier Wynne to attend the first meeting of the new board. Not surprisingly, Premier Wynne was a no-show. However, as far as 3-hour meetings go, the December 1st TDSB meeting was well-run, respectful and the new Trustees handily got through the business of electing a Chair, Vice-Chair and striking the many committees that were on the agenda.
Meanwhile, Margaret Wilson has started her external audit of the TDSB. Fix Our Schools has sent letters to the Province, the TDSB, and Margaret Wilson, urging all to stay focused on the safety, success and well being of TDSB students throughout this audit.
Our letters to the the Province and Ms. Wilson also request emergency funding to the TDSB to replace all roofs that have leaked in the last 18 months as well as all other repairs documented as urgent. We see this as an immediate step that the Province needs to take to address the appalling state of TDSB schools and one that cannot happen soon enough! If you would like to email the Province as well, simply click here , fill in your information at the bottom and cc: your MPP.
We are getting traction…The Toronto Star also thinks the province should step in to help
Please visit our last post and send letters to Premier Wynne and Minister Sandals to create more pressure for the Province to take action now.
After reading yet again about the ongoing dysfunction (and possible corruption) at the TDSB, Fix Our Schools is urging the Province to please help TDSB students and get involved in working with Canada’s largest school board to address the massive challenges it faces.
The public school students of Toronto have been penalized long enough for the inability of the grown-ups in charge to work together. The TDSB is in crisis and we ask all TDSB parents to write the Premier and Minister of Education, asking them to step in and help get the mammoth ship known as the TDSB back on course. To make it easy…
Email Premier Wynne & Minister Sandals
Letter to Premier Wynne & Minister Sandals
Email your MPP too – they are YOUR elected official at Queen’s Park!
Fix Our Schools believes that the Provincial regulation guiding the collection and use of EDCs must be changed. The TDSB agrees, as do many other school boards across the province. We’ve been lobbying the Province for change and so has the TDSB.
Check these out to find out what the TDSB has been doing:
TDSB Letter to Minister of Education re: EDCs
TDSB Letter to Premier re: EDCs
The TDSB recently accepted $1 million from a developer to build a new playground in exchange for abandoning the plan to work alongside the City to fight the planned development at the upcoming Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing. The proposed development casts a shadow over the entire school yard every morning, creating a sub-optimal play space for students.
Why would the TDSB agree to such a deal? Sadly, because it made sense when weighing the guaranteed $1 million from the developer against the uncertain $400,000 compensation if the OMB hearing resulted in a win.
Developers should be contributing financially to TDSB schools in communities where they build via Education Development Charges (EDCs). However, due to current provincial regulations, the TDSB doesn’t qualify so instead, we see these one-off deals where developers only contribute to public schools when backed into a corner.
The Province must change the regulation guiding the collection and use of EDC’s so that TDSB schools benefit routinely from new development. The TDSB has been lobbying the Province to do this since January, 2014 and Fix Our Schools has been lobbying the Province on this issue since May, 2014. To find out more about EDCs, visit Education Development Charges 101