June 19, 2013

No more pencils, no more books?

The cash-strapped Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is taking heat for considering selling land, as well as for runaway repair costs. We asked: How can the TDSB clean the slate?

In the hot seat: Chris Spence, director of education at the Toronto District School Board

In the hot seat: Chris Spence, director of education at the Toronto District School Board

PARKLAND IS PRICELESS
The TDSB is the backbone of Toronto. Before the cuts of the mid-1990s, it was one of the most innovative school boards in the world, yet it’s still able to absorb the children of immigrants from everywhere that have made this city strong. All organizations have some waste. Budgets can be audited and costs reigned in to fix that, but to sell off TDSB land — land that effectively serves as additional parkland for all of us when school’s out — would be giving up something much more valuable than whatever money it sold for, permanently.
Shawn Micallef, co-owner of Spacing Magazine, author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto

DON’T SELL THE FRIDGE TO PAY FOR FOOD
Money’s always an issue, but the selling off of school lands is short-sighted because they’re not making any new lands. The city is three million people and growing, and certainly schools may look different in the future, but if you’re going to project ahead, if you look at New York City (the problem that they have constructing new schools or finding sites for new schools), selling off land to finance operating costs is like selling off your refrigerator so you can buy food.
Howard Moscoe, former high school teacher, long-serving city councillor

TURN ENEMIES INTO ALLIES
For reasons that go beyond the organization, the TDSB is a mess. As a result, the board enjoys little public sympathy. Turning this around entails moving out of the classroom and becoming part of the larger city. To do this, it must reinvent school properties as public facilities and community centres of all sorts. By engaging local populations and making them welcome, the board would transform enemies into allies and hostility into approval.
Christopher Hume, architecture critic, Toronto Star

COMMUNICATION A CORNERSTONE
The TDSB has a proud record on which it can build additional trust and respect. School boards have been wrestling with declining enrolment, and the option of selling land may be the required solution. The key, however, will be for the board to communicate their careful consideration and consultation process. There is much room to increase communications with every community group affected. The goal is to show transparency and the careful consideration that goes into the decisions they make, especially those with competing objectives such as building revenue without losing public space. Never underestimate the role of communication’s place in the governance process; it is a cornerstone of success.
Howard Brown, president of reputation management  and media relations firm Brown & Cohen Communications & Public Affairs Inc.

DOWNSIZE SCHOOLS
By 2019 the TDSB will have an excess of 41,000 pupil places, a huge drain on its finances and ability to provide great facilities close to where kids live. The board should commit — and stick — to a 10-year plan to downsize schools with long-term, significant underenrolment. The public must support that. It would get inefficient maintenance costs off the books and generate revenue, both through property sales and, potentially, government grants that could be reinvested in better buildings, especially in higher-growth areas. We should also consider limited local tax levies for capital projects only.
Moira MacDonald, education columnist, Toronto Sun

This article appears in the September 2012 issue of Post City Magazines