JUNE 16 – TORONTO – Toronto District School Board trustees worked late on Monday evening, doing their best to comply with the Ontario Ministry of Education’s zero deficit budget mandate.
The 4:30 pm meeting was still going strong at 11 pm. They had two short breaks. At 10:58 pm, they voted for a 30-minute meeting extension.
Based on school board officials’ and trustees’ comments and questions, it feels like TDSB is between a fiscal rock and a hard place, as they look for areas to cut spending without harming students academically or experientially or reducing community use of school facilities, such as swimming pools.
The board is fine tuning their two-year 2025-2027 budget. The provincial government rejected it once before.
A possible solution that was not mentioned was seeking public-private partnerships. This could address some funding challenges, such as purchasing technology devices and musical instruments.
These are two of the areas where funding cuts have been proposed.
Other areas that are at least partially on the chopping block are
- Music education
- Outdoor education centres
- Swimming pools and programming
- Reduction of positions, financed by one-time funding
However, when you take a closer look at their expenditures, you find that the provincial funding model finances schools at a lower level than TDSB spends. This is true for special education spending and teacher salaries.
Since TDSB invests more money in special education programming and their teacher salaries are higher, they perpetually “overspend”, based on the Ministry of Education’s fiscal standards.
Additionally, the Ontario government’s funding model has not kept pace with increases in the cost of living.
It seems disingenuous and contradictory that Doug Ford’s government insists that Ontario school boards all submit balanced budgets, then propose a 35% pay increase for themselves.
These members of provincial parliament are also funded by the same public purse.
If Ontario’s government finances are stretched thin, how can they place strict financial restraints on school boards, while proposing a huge salary increase for themselves?
Another restraint that the provincial government has placed on Ontario school boards, that contributes to their financial distress, is continuing the moratorium on closing or merging school buildings that are underutilized.
This is in the face of declining student enrolment in Toronto’s public schools.
TDSB staff stated that their temporary plan of getting government permission to use proceeds from sold properties in their operating budget is not sustainable.
After six and a half hours, Trustees failed to approve the proposed budget.
The meeting adjourned at 11:10 pm.
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