Budget:
The TDSB Budget passed June 22, although I – and two other colleagues – voted against it.
I want to thank everyone who advocated to the province and the TDSB for funding reinstatement – although the situation is still grim, the advocacy has helped in providing some quiet flexibility from the province in some areas of the budget - which meant the TDSB did not need to cut even further this year. Together thousands of emails and letters were sent, phone calls made, petitions signed, and Toronto-Danforth school communities were a mainstay in the media and Queen’s Park. You kept these cuts and student safety and wellbeing top of mind in the media which has been essential – thank you.
Our community was successful in:
- Saving swim programming at Frankland, Queen A and Earl Grey. Thank you especially our area students who came forward and spoke out in defense of aquatics programming!
- Saving Vice Principals at some (although not all) schools our community, this includes keeping part-time Vice Principal support at Morse, Blake, Chester and Morse school.
- Reinstating a part-time Vice Principal for Wilkinson and adding an additional .5 Vice Principal for Danforth CTI.
Many other staffing cuts continue to go through and sadly all schools in the ward are affected:
- Central staff losses will impact the ability of the entire system to respond
- Nearly all schools are losing staff which include lunchroom supervisors, caretakers, office clerical support, child and youth workers, and other important staff positions.
- Some of the funding used to bring back Vice Principals part-time are temporary funds, so we could find ourselves needing to advocate again next year.
- Some schools – Blake, Duke of Connaught, and Jackman in particular – are seeing multiple staffing cuts. The reasons for this are projected reductions in student population and changes to their ranking on TDSB’s Learning Opportunities Index. Learning Opportunities Index policy is currently being reviewed, and I anticipated reporting on this review to come to board late in the fall.
On a personal level, I am sorry for these cuts. It is painful to see these cuts taking place as I know they are not in the best interest of our community.
The funding of our school board remains completely insufficient and we need to continue to advocate. Please stay tuned for updated messages from me into the fall on this.
