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School board may close 60 schools
Budget shortfall
Peter Kuitenbrouwer
National Post
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Toronto District School board could close "upwards of" 60 Toronto schools over the next four years to make up a $75-million budget shortfall, a board official said yesterday.
Don Higgins, the board's executive superintendent for business services, declined to name the schools, and said the first schools would close in 2007.
"There is consideration for moving to consolidate upwards of 60 schools over the next four years," he said. The plan is in a draft document that school board staff sent to Toronto's 22 school trustees in advance of a board meeting next Wednesday on the 2006-2007 budget.
The "consolidations" are necessary as enrolment continues to shrink, Mr. Higgins said. Since 2001, the TDSB has dropped by about 20,000 students to about 254,000 students. The board expects a further decline of about 3,500 grade-school students and 300 to 400 high-school students this fall.
"The optimal number of students in an elementary school is in the range of 400 to 500, which allows flexibility to hire a music teacher, phys-ed teacher and French teacher," he said.
When a reporter pointed out that the top three grade schools in Ontario -- from a Fraser Institute ranking based mainly on Grade 3 and Grade 6 test scores -- have fewer than 300 students, Mr. Higgins noted the board has many grade schools with fewer than 200 students.
"We've got a lot of half-empty or one-third-empty secondary schools," he added.
In 1998, after the province introduced a new school funding formula, the board said that formula would force it to close 138 schools. Mike Harris, then-Ontario premier, backed down after a huge outcry and kept the schools open. Even so, the board has closed 35 schools since then, and now counts 558 schools.
Ossington/Old Orchard Public School and Seneca Hills Public School, which won the highest Fraser Institute rankings this year, were both on the 1998 list for closure.
Yesterday, Cathy Dandy of the Toronto Parents Network and two school trustees held a news conference in the rain in front of Brant Public School downtown to fight the school closings.
"The funding formula doesn't count music rooms," Ms. Dandy said. "It's this ridiculous narrow definition of what schooling is." She said since seniors and preschoolers also use the schools, other ministries should step in and help with the funding, to keep the schools open. Ms. Dandy is a candidate for school trustee in Ward 15, Toronto-Danforth.
She said the list from 1998 is a good guide to which schools are threatened.
The board will also look at closing most of its 80 pools and cutting many of its 734 educational assistants as measures to break even, Mr. Higgins said.
Along with declining enrolment, the problem is with a provincial funding formula that underfunds school boards like Toronto's, he said. The cost of utilities for Toronto schools jumped from $47-million in 1998 to $78-million in 2005-2006, but the province only increased the utilities grants by about $13-million. The board had to make up the shortfall, about $18-million, itself.
Since the Toronto board is unique in operating swimming pools, the province refuses to fund them.
"We're significantly underfunded for salary and benefits and utilities," Mr. Higgins said. "We received provincial grants for increased learning opportunities and English as a Second Language, but we had to use it to sustain the programs we have."
John Campbell, school board trustee for Etobicoke Centre, noted that with class sizes capped at 20 students up to Grade 3, the board doesn't need educational assistants in the lower grades.
"Like a company that is stumbling, this board needs to restructure," he said.
He said the board should also do away with hall monitors and lunch room monitors. "There's not an endless pot of money down at Queen's Park," he said.[/quote]
Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
________________
School board may close 60 schools
Budget shortfall
Peter Kuitenbrouwer
National Post
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Toronto District School board could close "upwards of" 60 Toronto schools over the next four years to make up a $75-million budget shortfall, a board official said yesterday.
Don Higgins, the board's executive superintendent for business services, declined to name the schools, and said the first schools would close in 2007.
"There is consideration for moving to consolidate upwards of 60 schools over the next four years," he said. The plan is in a draft document that school board staff sent to Toronto's 22 school trustees in advance of a board meeting next Wednesday on the 2006-2007 budget.
The "consolidations" are necessary as enrolment continues to shrink, Mr. Higgins said. Since 2001, the TDSB has dropped by about 20,000 students to about 254,000 students. The board expects a further decline of about 3,500 grade-school students and 300 to 400 high-school students this fall.
"The optimal number of students in an elementary school is in the range of 400 to 500, which allows flexibility to hire a music teacher, phys-ed teacher and French teacher," he said.
When a reporter pointed out that the top three grade schools in Ontario -- from a Fraser Institute ranking based mainly on Grade 3 and Grade 6 test scores -- have fewer than 300 students, Mr. Higgins noted the board has many grade schools with fewer than 200 students.
"We've got a lot of half-empty or one-third-empty secondary schools," he added.
In 1998, after the province introduced a new school funding formula, the board said that formula would force it to close 138 schools. Mike Harris, then-Ontario premier, backed down after a huge outcry and kept the schools open. Even so, the board has closed 35 schools since then, and now counts 558 schools.
Ossington/Old Orchard Public School and Seneca Hills Public School, which won the highest Fraser Institute rankings this year, were both on the 1998 list for closure.
Yesterday, Cathy Dandy of the Toronto Parents Network and two school trustees held a news conference in the rain in front of Brant Public School downtown to fight the school closings.
"The funding formula doesn't count music rooms," Ms. Dandy said. "It's this ridiculous narrow definition of what schooling is." She said since seniors and preschoolers also use the schools, other ministries should step in and help with the funding, to keep the schools open. Ms. Dandy is a candidate for school trustee in Ward 15, Toronto-Danforth.
She said the list from 1998 is a good guide to which schools are threatened.
The board will also look at closing most of its 80 pools and cutting many of its 734 educational assistants as measures to break even, Mr. Higgins said.
Along with declining enrolment, the problem is with a provincial funding formula that underfunds school boards like Toronto's, he said. The cost of utilities for Toronto schools jumped from $47-million in 1998 to $78-million in 2005-2006, but the province only increased the utilities grants by about $13-million. The board had to make up the shortfall, about $18-million, itself.
Since the Toronto board is unique in operating swimming pools, the province refuses to fund them.
"We're significantly underfunded for salary and benefits and utilities," Mr. Higgins said. "We received provincial grants for increased learning opportunities and English as a Second Language, but we had to use it to sustain the programs we have."
John Campbell, school board trustee for Etobicoke Centre, noted that with class sizes capped at 20 students up to Grade 3, the board doesn't need educational assistants in the lower grades.
"Like a company that is stumbling, this board needs to restructure," he said.
He said the board should also do away with hall monitors and lunch room monitors. "There's not an endless pot of money down at Queen's Park," he said.[/quote]
Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
