Budget decisions at Toronto District School Board
The TDSB is moving towards making its budget decisions for the 2008-2009 school year, and anticipates having to address a shortfall of roughly $40 million. In order to deal with this, Board staff is suggesting that Trustees consider a number of potential cuts to school programs and services, which will be considered at the March 5 Board meeting.
Trustee Atkinson is looking for input from parents, and the Fern School Council will be discussing this issue at its meeting on Thursday, February 21.
The staff-recommended cuts are outlined below, and your School Council wants to know: What is your position? Do you support these cuts? Some, but not others? Do you endorse a no-cuts position?
If you would like to join the discussion, please come out to the meeting at 7:00 pm on February 21 – all parents are welcome, and childcare is provided.
If you can’t attend the meeting, please e-mail your ideas to me, Catherine Marjoribanks at wordplay@sympatico.ca. I will consolidate comments from Fern families and forward them to Trustee Atkinson.
Among the suggested budget items for cuts are:
Elementary Library Teachers: A staffing formula reduction from .6 to .5, which would result in the loss of the equivalent of 36 full-time positions.
School Budgets: a potential 5% reduction.
Pools: Beginning a phased-in decommissioning of 22 of the 44 pools fully funded by the TDSB (i.e., not used by the City for its programs). This would lead to closure of the pools at Fern and at Parkdale Collegiate.
Educational Assistants: A reduction to regular Kindergarten EAs – from 734 to approximately 100 -- in light of class-size capping.
English as a Second Language: A modification of the proposed increase that would see more ESL dollars spent on ESL and not diverted to other programs, and a phasing in of that proposed increase over two years.
Special Education: Home School Program (HSP): This would be a reduction of staff (20 full-time employees) in underutilized schools, following on a Board review of the program.
Central Department and Family of Schools budget reduction: This would be a continuation of a series of significant budget cuts in this area and would affect purchases, travel, staffing, and otherwise unfunded supports, such as small school repairs.
Other budget lines under consideration include: a transfer of IT hardware costs to the capital fund; a leveraging of Student Success and other Ministry-specific funding to offset other costs; a realignment of funds for the Model Schools for Inner City Project.
Trustee Atkinson is looking for input from parents, and the Fern School Council will be discussing this issue at its meeting on Thursday, February 21.
The staff-recommended cuts are outlined below, and your School Council wants to know: What is your position? Do you support these cuts? Some, but not others? Do you endorse a no-cuts position?
If you would like to join the discussion, please come out to the meeting at 7:00 pm on February 21 – all parents are welcome, and childcare is provided.
If you can’t attend the meeting, please e-mail your ideas to me, Catherine Marjoribanks at wordplay@sympatico.ca. I will consolidate comments from Fern families and forward them to Trustee Atkinson.
Among the suggested budget items for cuts are:
Elementary Library Teachers: A staffing formula reduction from .6 to .5, which would result in the loss of the equivalent of 36 full-time positions.
School Budgets: a potential 5% reduction.
Pools: Beginning a phased-in decommissioning of 22 of the 44 pools fully funded by the TDSB (i.e., not used by the City for its programs). This would lead to closure of the pools at Fern and at Parkdale Collegiate.
Educational Assistants: A reduction to regular Kindergarten EAs – from 734 to approximately 100 -- in light of class-size capping.
English as a Second Language: A modification of the proposed increase that would see more ESL dollars spent on ESL and not diverted to other programs, and a phasing in of that proposed increase over two years.
Special Education: Home School Program (HSP): This would be a reduction of staff (20 full-time employees) in underutilized schools, following on a Board review of the program.
Central Department and Family of Schools budget reduction: This would be a continuation of a series of significant budget cuts in this area and would affect purchases, travel, staffing, and otherwise unfunded supports, such as small school repairs.
Other budget lines under consideration include: a transfer of IT hardware costs to the capital fund; a leveraging of Student Success and other Ministry-specific funding to offset other costs; a realignment of funds for the Model Schools for Inner City Project.