Toronto’s public school board should press the province for more funding, rather than consider budget options that will “harm” students, such as closing pools and eliminating a specialized music program.
That was a key message as members of the public made submissions on Tuesday at a special meeting of the º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøDistrict School Board, where trustees are grappling with a projected $58 million structural deficit for the 2025-26 academic year.
“Learning to swim is not a privilege — it is a right that we owe to our children, who live next to a very large body of water with deceptively easy access,” said mother Angie Law. Â
And she was “aghast” at the proposed elimination of the itinerant music program in elementary schools, which is taught by professional musicians to enrich the music curriculum, adding “the impact of this instruction has been incredible.”
“My non-sports children learned about teamwork and its importance — another valuable life skill — and will be forever players of the instruments they first picked up in Grade 5: one French horn, the other clarinet. How can you put a price on the value of this learning?”Â
She recognized that the TDSB is “stuck between a rock and a hard place” saying it has been “negligently underfunded” by the province for many years, and called on trustees to push the government to “reinstate the funding that our kids deserve.”
The TDSB originally faced a $70.3 million deficit, but with the consumer carbon pricing scrapped it was adjusted to $58 million. Last week, the Education Ministry announced it is sending investigators to probe the finances of the city’s public and Catholic board — the Catholic board faces a $66 million deficit — warning if they don’t balance their books they could be taken over the province.
TDSB staff have presented trustees with options on where they can make cuts and savings, which include eliminating the itinerant music program, affecting 74 instructors; closing pools that aren’t leased and laying off all 86 TDSB aquatic instructors; and changing programming at its outdoor education centres that could result in some being shuttered. Other considerations include delaying the 1:1 devices program — when kids receive a Chromebook — from grade 5 to grade 7 and increasing fees in continuing education programming for adults.
On Tuesday, the public weighed in on various options, before a Wednesday meeting where trustees will discuss the budget.
Several speakers urged trustees to keep pools afloat. The board doesn’t receive funding to run its 66 pools — 27 are leased to the City of Toronto, two are leased privately and 37 are permitted out by the board. Â
Larry Tobin of Jack of Sports — it permits more than 15 pools to run swim lessons servicing 35,000 families — said the TDSB should work out lease options with private companies and “renegotiate the City’s lease structure so they are paying fair rates.” He added: “There is no reason the TDSB should be losing money on pools.”Â
Mother Sandra Huh spoke of the “harm that the proposed cuts will have” noting “educators and students are barely holding on.”
“We must, as a community, clearly sound the alarm that more is needed and should be provided by the ministry.”
Among the registered delegates was former Ontario premier and Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne, who in an earlier interview told the Star that many of the TDSB’s financial challenges should be resolved by the province’s Progressive Conservative government.
She said they include the amount in unfunded statutory benefits — Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance — amounting to $43.7 million; the gap in teacher salaries and actual salary costs that’s projected to hit $26.1 million this year; and per-pupil funding that hasn’t kept pace with inflation with the reports estimating the gap between $776 and $1,500 per student.Â
“From my perspective, this is about a provincial government that actually doesn’t respect school boards,” said Wynne. “I really believe that there are people around the premier who would like to see school boards gone. And I think that it’s very important right now that school boards make the case for how this government has just quietly undermined their ability to do their work.”
In a statement to the Star, Emma Testani, press secretary for Education Minister Paul Calandra, noted the TDSB was provided “a record increase in education funding this school year” and given “multiple opportunities” to address its financial situation.
“TDSB was directed to submit a multi-year financial recovery plan to address their serious ongoing financial issues. To date, the board has not produced a trustee-approved financial recovery plan to respond to concerns that identify strategies to eliminate their deficits,” she said, adding that in December the province’s auditor general also flagged concerns.
“This mismanagement required our government to take immediate action to address failures at several boards across the province to increase accountability and ensure they are focused on improving student outcomes.” ”
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