School boards scramble to analyze cuts
The Toronto District School Board could face an extra $25 million on top of its looming $85 million deficit because of funding changes announced in this week’s Ontario budget.
Among financial hits the board might take is the loss of the $5 million it receives from the province in “program enhancement grants” that provide extra dollars for the arts and other areas, according to an internal memo in which board staff took a first analysis of the provincial grants announced Thursday.
These program enhancement grants are to be phased out and redirected over the next three years, as one of the ways Ontario wants to balance the books without reducing core classroom spending.
The board will see administrative funding drop by about $2 million to $2.5 million, warned the memo, and transportation funding will drop by about 1 per cent as the province moves to whittle more than $34 million from transportation grants by encouraging boards to be more efficient.
TDSB staff also predicted a drop of another $2 million to $3 million in grants designed to serve the board’s inner-city students, and will continue to make reductions in classroom computer and professional development.
Board chair Chris Bolton said it was too early to know how funding changes will roll out, but said he hoped “they’ll keep the cuts away from the classroom and still give us flexibility with how we use them.”
The board must vote Wednesday on whether to follow a staff proposal to scrap the jobs of 430 education assistants, 134 school secretaries, 39 elementary vice-principals and 200 high school teachers, plus others to help reduce the $85 million deficit.
At the Toronto Catholic District School Board, chair Ann Andrachuk said the Ontario budget’s “cuts to busing and special education funding will continue to be a challenge to us.” Ontario has said it will cut $5.3 million from its already stretched special education grants.
“But my first impression is that we should be pretty good; we’re not looking at a deficit.”
The Peel District School Board will take a 7 per cent cut in its cleaning bill next year because the Ontario budget now gives less money to boards for cleaning new schools than for cleaning older ones, which Carla Kisko, director of operational support services, said is puzzling.
“More than half of our schools are relatively new, but that doesn’t mean they take any less cleaning per square foot than older buildings, or less snow removal or landscaping or grass-cutting lighting or heating. It will be a significant cut to us.”