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February Update – Trustee Sara

Where has February gone?

I want to thank everyone who has already sent a letter to the provincial government on funding public education. While I am frustrated to read of all the challenges your families are experiencing due to the chronic underfunding of education, I know that these stories need to be told to our elected provincial government directly – they could choose to make different decisions and adequately fund public education. Please keep it up! Find a sample message you can send here.

As February comes to a close, I’d like to draw attention to the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. For most of the world 2024 will be the closing year of this decade – but not for Canada. This month the federal government announced Canada would continue to recognize the Decade for People of African Descent until 2028. This is good news, but it is worth noting that Canada did not officially recognize this International Decade until four years after the United Nations declared it. Also this month Ontario announced that it will finally be introducing mandatory curriculum on Black History in public school. This is welcome news. I would like to congratulate everyone, but especially Black Ontarians who have been advocating for many years to bring this important history for all of us into Ontario school curriculum.

Take care,

-Sara

Sara Ehrhardt (she/her)
TDSB Trustee Ward 15, Toronto-Danforth
Sara.Ehrhardt@tdsb.on.ca
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This week! Thursday February 29 Virtual Meeting with Councillor Paula Fletcher on Ontario Line Construction Pape/Riverdale

Metrolinx will soon begin the next phase of Ontario Line construction. It will impact the Pape & Riverdale area, including Pape School. Councillor Paula Fletcher and I are hosting a public information session on Zoom Thursday, February 29 at 7 pm Register for the public information session here.

Councillor Fletcher is also hosting a virtual meeting on Ontario Line construction impacts in the Pape & Danforth and Pape & Sammon area on March 5th. Learn more about the virtual meeting here.

Board News

You can access agendas and minutes for all committee meetings once they are posted and information on delegating during committee meetings.

Consultation on Legacy Technical and Commercial Boundaries

The TDSB has now posted a preliminary report and recommendations stemming from the ‘legacy technical and commercial boundary review’ – the documents are available at item 8.1 here.

I would be grateful for your views on this, there are several recommendations that relate to our area. The proposal would:

remove the current pre-amalgamation boundaries for Danforth CTI (and other legacy tech and commercial institutes) and open these schools to students city-wide starting Sept 1, 2025
include a 3-year transition plan for access for siblings and those who commit to taking tech courses

The report also includes a commitment to developing options that would allow for admissions restrictions to be lifted at Riverdale, which has been a personal priority for me as your Trustee. Riverdale is currently significantly over capacity and these admission restrictions have impacted so many in our community.

We are expecting the final report and recommendations to be voted on by the full board in April.

Historic Capital Revitalization Strategy Approved

Many of the schools in our area need significant infrastructure updates. In late January I was happy to join in approving a Capital Revitalization strategy for the TDSB. This ambitious ten-year strategy aims to have no school buildings classified as “requiring extensive improvement” by 2035. More information can be found at Capital Revitalization Strategy.

Our Schools

I was thrilled to participate in a recent workshop cohosted by Cosburn and Diefenbaker school councils to make an Indigenous medicine bag, and to learn more alongside the school community about Indigenous history and culture. Thanks very much in particular to the parent volunteers who made this event happen.

The TDSB recently launched a new program that allows students to reimagine 3 former TDSB sites using Minecraft with an Indigenous lens – this was launched here in Toronto-Danforth! You can see CityNews coverage of this at TDSB students reimagine Toronto with Indigenous guidance . You can try out the program with your family here.

Our Community

Toronto Public Health is hosting community clinics to help students catch-up on their school-based vaccines, you can find more information about vaccines here.

I was honoured to speak at a recent Save the Ontario Science Centre Rally held in Riverdale.

There is another east end rally being held at East Lynne Park on Sunday March 3. You can join in the efforts to save the Ontario Science Centre and get more information on upcoming events here.

Sara Ehrhardt speaking with a megaphone and people standing benind her

Trustee Sara Ehrhardt alongside Floyd Ruskin, MPP Jill Andrew, and MPPChris Glover at a recent Save Ontario Science Centre Rally held in Riverdale.

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