April 2023
Dear Students, Parents and Caregivers,
TDSB Student Census
Share your voice! The TDSB Student Census is a confidential and voluntary survey that asks our students important questions about their school experiences and identities including participation in school activities, safety, well-being, mental health, outdoor learning, etc. It is an opportunity for students to share their voice and provide valuable information to help us improve our schools and system. We are asking all parents/guardians/caregivers and/or students to consider filling out a census survey online. For more information, please visit www.tdsb.on.ca/census and read the Student Census Questions and Answers.
Multi-Year Strategic Plan Renewal Update
The Board will be engaging in community consultation to inform the multi-year strategic plan until October. Members of the TDSB community will be able to participate in various ways, such as through an online survey or through in-person and virtual discussions. They will also be able to facilitate discussions themselves among parent groups, committees or community organizations and submit their input online, by email, or by mail. The online survey is housed on Qualtrics, which allows Google Translate to translate the survey into various languages. The process will also engage with community organizations to encourage their input. In-person and virtual sessions will have accommodations and interpreters upon request.
The renewal of the MYSP will be guided by the following principles.
- Centring and listening to students’ voices
- Recognizing and amplifying the voices, knowledge, and experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other currently and historically underserved communities
- Ensuring equity, wellbeing, high achievement, are understood as intertwined and critical factors in student success
- Honouring the ways in which student success is defined by students and their families.
- Building a more welcoming and re-envisioned school system that adds value to students’ lives regardless of their identity
- Creating and fostering inclusive spaces where all stakeholders participate fully and authentically
- Reflecting the multiple and ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, staff, families
- Establishing measurable, results-based goals which reflect current evidence and student data and with specific attention to disparities and disproportionalities in outcomes and experiences
- Establishing goals to modernize business processes (e.g., financial and human resource management) to enhance organizational effectiveness and add value to student experiences
- Establishing goals that enhance confidence in public education.
Budget Backgrounder
Sources of Funding
There are 4 main sources of funding that support schools each year:
- Priorities & Partnership Funding (PPF) grants - These grants support specific program areas decided by the Ministry of Education on an annual basis. Unspent amounts are either returned to Ministry or carried over to next school year depending on PPF guidelines.
- School Generated Funds (Non-board) – School-level fundraising directly managed by the school. Unspent funds are carried over annually to the next school year for the intended purpose for which they were raised.
- School Generated Funds (School council) – School-level fundraising managed by school councils. Unspent funds are carried over annually to the next school year for the intended purpose for which they were raised.
- School budget allocations funded through the Grant for Student Needs (GSN)
School generated funds are used to complement but not replace public funding for education and can be used for items not funded through the school’s budget. For example, they can be used for student subsidies, donations to external charities, expenditures for co-curricular or before and after school activities, student nutrition programs and school yard improvements. They cannot be used for expenses such as core curriculum materials, capital infrastructure improvements, gifts or compensation to TDSB employees and school council members, or political activities. Funds must be raised for specific purposes and spent according to the purposes communicated.
Each year, schools are provided their budget allocation based on their projected enrolments in the spring of the previous year. This allows schools time to start their planning for the upcoming year. The school Principal is responsible for determining the use of the school budget allocation to support the school improvement plan and student achievement. The principal is to consult with both the school staff and school council in preparation of budget. Once the Principal has completed the budget, it is submitted to the school Superintendent for approval. Typically principals realign their budgets to support such things as student resources, field trips, technology (in addition to the one to one technology), release time for staff development, special events such as commencements and proms. Around December, the Budget department adjusts the budget based on the actual October 31 enrolments and any additional allocations for new classrooms.
Local Community Safety Tables
The Board is making local community safety tables. The intention is to make the process of developing local community safety tables accessible to all schools. The table will take into account the following real-time data considerations:
- Student discipline data
- SafeTO - City of Toronto data
- Toronto Police Services data
- Qualitative and quantitative data collected by Caring and Schools and other staff
These tables will emphasize a public health and community-based approach to addressing school and community violence and as such public health partners will be represented at every table. Local Trustees will inform membership of local community agencies, and engage voices that have not historically been heard. In the initial phase there will be tables that cross Learning Centres. Local community tables will meet 3-4 times per year.
REQUEST: If there are any community organizations that would like to join this work please reach out to me.
City of Toronto Board of Public Health Update
As the TDSB’s Trustee representative on the Toronto Board of Public Health I would like to provide updates that pertain particularly to students.
At the April Public Health meeting the Toronto Youth Cabinet presented a letter they have presented to Minister Lecce regarding the rising mental health crisis facing children and youth in Ontario. They have requested
- Mandatory mental health literacy in the curriculum
- Mental health days for students
- Additional mental health clinicians, and student support staff, such as; mental health professionals, school psychologists, child & youth workers, social workers, nurses, guidance counsellors, and mental health crisis intervention workers
- Collection and reporting of data on mental health supports and services in schools
- School-based culturally appropriate mental health screening for all grades
