Should Trustee’s powers be reduced? Should #TDSB close schools? Have your say- Monday, January 26, 2015

Message from Educators for Peace and Justice: 

We hope you’re all well and willing and able to take action on the current threat of:

• The closings of schools;
• Undermining local democratic control over the TDSB by weakening the role and power of local trustees.

The Situation: 

As many of you already know the government is using the Wilson Report on the current dysfunction at the board to ram through Harris-era schools closures (which will primarily affect low-income and immigrant neighbourhoods and hundreds of CUPE workers) and further centralization of control over schooling. (See links attached below to 3 recent Op-Eds for more background information.)

The Action:

The trustees of the TDSB will hold a public consultation meeting this Monday January 26th 7pm at 5050 Yonge St on the directives arising from the Wilson Review of the Toronto District School Board. We need people to flood the board with concerns about school closures and the undermining of local democratic control of the board. You have until tomorrow (Friday Jan 23rd) at 10am to submit a request to speak at the meeting. (See details below)

You may also make a written submission. CUPE, OSSTF-D.12, and ETT will all be making submissions on behalf of Education Workers. We are encouraging people to speak as concerned parents and community members.  Please alert your friends, family, and networks, especially those who have kids in the system.

The Details: 

 To speak to the Trustees email Denisse.Parra@tdsb.on.ca by Friday January 23rd, at 10AM naming:

•  the topic that will be addressed (The Minister’s directives of Jan 15th) * the name of the speaker;
• address of the speaker;
• contact information for the speaker (phone, fax, e-mail) ;
• the name of the organization (if the speaker is representing an organization such as a school council or community group);

The Context / Background: 

“The View from Inside A Reeling TDSB” Op-Ed from Trustee Chris Glover (while not perfect it does clearly identify the funding formula as the core problem) http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opinion/commentary/2015/01/20/the-view-from-inside-a-reeling-tdsb.html

 “Ontario is rolling back school board democracy‏” Op-Ed from John Cartwright, President of Toronto and York Region Labour Council http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opinion/commentary/2015/01/21/ontario-is-rolling-back-school-board-democracy.html

A Joint Response from OSSTF District 12, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto and CUPE 4400 http://osstftoronto.ca/news/2015/01/the-wilson-report-a-joint-response-from-osstf-district-12-and-elementary-teachers-of-toronto/


Wilson Report Highlights:

The part of the report that sets the stage for massive school closures is buried in recommendation #9:

9) Direct the TDSB to provide a three-year capital plan that should reflect a comprehensive, system-wide assessment of the pupil accommodation needs of the board. The plan must clearly state how the TDSB can manage its capital assets within its current school operations and renewal envelopes. The plan should include separate sections that address the following issues:

a) Board-wide priorities for the effective use and management of school space to provide effective programming.

b) A clear indication of how the board intends to reduce under-utilized spaces across its schools in each year, including the number of proposed accommodation reviews and a list of affected schools.

c) A comparative analysis of TDSB enrolment projections for all schools against capacity.

d) A list of all closed and underutilized schools that will remain as core holdings for the future, with justification for not declaring each property as surplus.

e) A prioritization of school renewal needs to be addressed in each year to support the findings of the Ministry’s Condition Assessment Program.

f) An analysis of operating costs of all schools that shows the relative cost per pupil for each open and operating school.

The board has until Feb. 13 to comply, so the timelines are very tight. The government seems intend on ramming this through quickly and early in their mandate so that memories have a chance to fade by the next election.

STRONG TEACHERS MAKE STRONG SCHOOLS Like most teachers I know, I never imagined we would have to take our politics so seriously. We were supposed to focus on the kids getting a good education and let other people – hopefully good people – take hold of the larger world around us. Now, it’s all too clear: If we really want to focus on our kids, we also have to deal with the world around us, especially to the school system in which we teach. We have to find a way to be the teachers we know we can be. We have to stop the cutbacks the TDSB has faced over the last decade. And we have to bring our communities with us. We already know the austerity drill: lots of “caring” official rhetoric covering up more cuts on the ground. And we know that it means reducing essential resources, raising class sizes, putting the pressure on wages and pensions. We have no choice but to respond. Strong schools need strong teachers – teachers who have autonomy to work for what their students need rather than Ministry-mandated “outcomes”, test scores, administrivia and demands for empty accountability. We have to take back real power on the job – not only in doing our classroom work, but in making genuine decisions, as school staffs, on matters such as school budgeting, student distribution, school organization, and curriculum integration between classes. We also have to bring our communities on board. It’s their power and care for our students that gives real peace and order to our schools. Finally, we have to face up as a union to the pointlessness of hundreds of dissociated curriculum “outcomes” policed by irrelevant and destructive standardized tests. In survey after survey, Toronto teachers have said how bad this curriculum/testing framework is. We have to fight for real standards – standards that can only be judged in practice by classroom teachers. Promoting real standards lies at the core of our profession – in our development of an engaging and purposeful curriculum and in our response to what our students do with that curriculum: their actual reading and writing, their projects in history and social studies, how they do math, what they think about the natural world. This is dealing with the real stuff of the world; it’s what matters – to us and to our students. If we have the courage and determination to reach out to our parents and communities on these issues of funding, local power and curriculum and testing reform, I think a strong “education quality alliance” is truly possible and will make all the difference in own lives. We can’t stand alone in fighting for the kind of school system we know will make a difference. It’s the big reason I’m running for Executive Officer. I hope I have your support and your comments and critique as we move through this campaign. There is a lot of work to do standing up with teachers as individuals in a profession that has been hit hard over the past years. But it’s work that needs to be done to make our schools our students and ourselves strong. We need to look after each other as teachers and friends. Let me know what you think. Nigel