WATCH: Christina Stevens reports that the TDSB is looking at the possibility of closing down several of its schools.
TORONTO – Falling enrolment at the Toronto District School Board is forcing officials to look at the possibility of closing down one in five of its schools.
The board released a list Wednesday of 84 elementary schools and 46 secondary schools considered “under-utilized” with a threshold capacity of 65 per cent or less.
Canada’s largest school board is under pressure from the Ontario government to sell surplus properties, but the ones with the lowest enrolment may not be automatically sold and will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Liz Sandals, Ontario’s Minister of Education, said the local school board is responsible to close schools it doesn’t need.
She added that the province currently spends $1 billion – the majority of which is spent in the Greater Toronto Area – to keep under-utilized schools open.
“We want to make sure that rather than spending $1 billion on supporting empty space that we’re actually spending money on the kids that are there.”
But the province’s definition of under-utilized doesn’t take into account daycares or adult ESL classes inside those schools, Marit Stiles, a TDSB trustee for Ward 9 Davenport said in an interview Thursday.
“The school board already has a lot, and a lot of the schools on that list are what I would define as a community hub, they have childcare spaces, parent and family literary centres, they have adult ESL programs, they are providing important services to the entire community,” she said. “That’s exactly the kind of utilization of public spaces that we want to see more of.”
The list of potential school closures was presented to trustees a week after the board voted to comply with recommendations ordered by the province following the release of a scathing report detailing a “culture of fear” at the public institution.
The provincial report found that employees feared their e-mails and telephone calls were monitored and trustees were criticized for interfering with schools and hiring, which included a pay cut of $17,000 to board director Donna Quan’s salary.
The report also highlighted the board’s failure to manage its capital assets such as not selling schools with low enrolment to finance repairs.
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