Allenby Parents' Association

Dear Friends of TDSB schools

This update will focus primarily of the on-going TDSB budget discussions (for details see the Budget Summary), but I’d like to start with a number of smaller items that I think that you’ll find important, interesting, and/or useful. As always, I encourage you to share this with others who might be interested in it.

And please email me with any thoughts our comments that you have on any issue related to our public schools.

Howard Goodman
TDSB Trustee, Eglinton-Lawrence

Community Meeting on TDSB Budget: May 31, 7pm, North Toronto Collegiate jointly hosted by Gerri Gershon, Shelley Laskin, and me for constituents in Don Valley West, St. Paul’s, and Eglinton-Lawrence. (Click here for details.)

Swim To Survive – 1 week programs throughout July (see “SwimtoSurvive” for details)

New Provincial Fundraising Guidelines – http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/Fund2012Guideline.pdf

Homework Help and other on-line resources – There are a wide range of on-line resources available on the TDSB web-site. As exams approach these may be especially useful. You can access them at here (or go to www.tdsb.on.ca, click “Parents” at the top, and then “Online Learning Resources” at the left). You will need a password to access some of these resources. You can get the password from your school (librarian, teacher, or office).

Concussions and Brain Injuries – Recent research has shown that much of what we were taught growing up about concussions is just plain wrong. The health of your child’s brain is critically important to her or his life outcome. Even the best helmet can’t fully protect the brain from being damaged when it hits the inside of the skull, and there is no easy treatment. Find out what is known now at http://thinkfirst.ca/index.aspx.

33 TDSB Pools Leased by the City for Five Years

Congratulations to local schools

• At the recent TDSB “Honouring Excellence” event, 6 of the 19 honourees were from local schools (Nina Pan of North Prep, the whole teaching staff of Joyce PS, Susie Neves of Flemington PS, the caretaking team at Forest Hill CI, Steven Solomon at Northern SS, and Donna Shewman at Forest Hill PS). We clearly have an abundance of excellence in our local schools.
• The recent SickKids MedTech Challenge was won by TDSB students (Ben and Sebastian from John Polanyi CI along with 2 teammates from Bloor Collegiate). The challenge was to build a functioning robot that could be used to drill a hole in the skull as an initial step in brain surgery.
• Katy Whitfield, Vaughan Road Academy teacher, for being honoured with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal “for her dedication to teaching and for inspiring Canadian youth to build a better world”.
• The team of 23 grade 7 students from Faywood Community Arts School for winning the 1st annual John Polanyi CI Skills Challenge. There were 10 challenges overall (including robotics, video production, cooking, soccer, and science). I spent time visiting each of the challenges and was delighted by the energy, focus, skill, and fun shown by all the teams (Glenview, Ledbury, Lawrence Heights, Dublin Heights, Beverly Heights, and Fisherville as well as Faywood). Congratulations to all the participants as well as all the Polanyi students who guided the competitors through their tasks.
• And finally, congratulations to the winners of the NW3 Family of Schools spelling bee – Emma Buston of Armour Heights (gr 1-3), Shai Yu of Rockford (gr 4-6), and Arman Nagra of Dublin Hts (gr 7-8).

Proposals for the 2012/13 TDSB Operating Budget (see the “Budget Summary” for more details and context)

Every year all school boards in Ontario (including the Toronto District School Board) are required to submit by June 30 a balanced operating budget to the Minister of Education. This year, the TDSB Board of Trustees will be holding a meeting on June 13 to consider staff recommendations for the 2012/13 TDSB budget and to pass a budget.

TDSB has a yearly operating budget of about $2.7 Billion. Roughly 80% of that amount is spent on school-based staff.

TDSB is facing a $109M shortfall next year. This is the result of several factors, the three most significant being:

• reductions in Provincial funding other than those to expand new Ministry initiatives (eg. All day JK/SK),
• TDSB enrollment (increasing at primary grades but still decreasing at secondary as the last of the “echo” generation graduates), and
• student and community supports and services that TDSB has historically provided that go beyond those paid for by the Provincial funding formula (school pools, EAs, Model Schools of Inner Cities, etc.)

Somewhat awkwardly, we decide on the part of our operating budget dealing with school-staffing in March or very early April, and the rest of our operating budget in June. This is caused by our not receiving funding details from the Ministry until after the deadline that Principals need to plan for the start of school in September.

In early April, we considered that part of the TDSB budget related to school-based staffing. During that process we reduced spending by $50M from this year’s levels by reducing the number of Education Assistants, Vice-Principals, Secondary Teachers, and others.

On June 13 we will be meeting to set the final part of the operating budget. To balance the budget to revenue (as is required by the Education Act), we’ll need to find ways to reduce spending in these areas by $58M.

Our staff have recommended a series of changes from this year’s budget. I have tried to summarize as accurately and clearly as possible so that you can let me know what you think of these possible changes.

This process has been a challenging one. Almost everything that we spend money one supports students and the community in some way. Almost anything that we reduce will remove some support from some students or sector of the broader community.

Our goal is to find ways to balance our operating budget with as little impact on the supports that we provide as possible.

Summary of Proposed Reductions, with related amounts

• Executive Office and Central Administration Reductions: $7.6M
• Reduction in Non-Academic Central Departments: $3.9M
• Transportation Department Restructuring: $0.9M
• Facilities Services Aligned to Funding: $9.9M
• Adult Day School, Summer School, & Non-credit Courses: $0.5M
• School-Based Professional Development: $4.5M
• Printing and Courier Service Reorganization: $1.0M
• Provincial “Broader Public Sector Expense” Rules: $0.2M
• Moratorium on International Travel & Conference Expense (2012/13 only): $1.0M
• Secondment and Replacement Costs (2012/13 only): $2.0M
• Building Closures during summer and Winter Breaks: $1.0M
• Information Services Operating Savings: $0.6M
• Professional Development – Principals (2012/13 only): $0.4M
• International Languages Programs: $0.4M
• Changes to School Cafeterias Due to Provincial Healthy Food Rules (PPM150): $1.6M
• Permit Fee Increase: $2.2M
• Realignment of Professional Support Services (PSS): $2.0M
• Reduction of Central Administrators, Coordinators, and Instructional Leaders: $2.5M
• Bring Special Education Services Closer to Benchmarks: $1.5M
• Reduction in School Budgets: $1.2M
• Use of “Education Program Other” (EPO) Grants: $6.0M
• Ministry Operational Review: $5.4M