Schools need to close: TDSB chairman

The chairman of Toronto’s public school board said Monday the cash-strapped board needs to move ahead this year with closing or consolidating its half-empty schools in order to save millions.

"Our biggest challenge and difficulty is that we have too many schools and not enough students. We have 110 schools that are less than half full.

That’s a number that’s been growing," chairman John Campbell, an Etobicoke trustee, said. "If we were to have 25 to 30 fewer schools, we’d [save] anywhere from $10-million to $15-million a year."

Mr. Campbell said he has the support of the Toronto District School Board’s new director of education, Chris Spence, who as leader of Hamilton’s board consolidated numerous schools.

Josh Matlow, trustee for St. Paul’s, said he will present a motion at the Aug. 26 school board meeting, requesting that the board consider closing 10 of its undersubscribed schools this year and 10 more the year after. A TDSB accommodation review committee would assess each school to determine whether it should be closed or has surplus space to be leased.

"I’m not calling for a fire sale," Mr. Matlow said. "Some schools should be sold if there is no reasonable projection of growth in the community. In some cases, there may be community organizations that express interest in working with the TDSB."

An inventory of schools released last year showed 92 of 533 public schools in Toronto have an enrollment of less than 60%, and the TDSB loses about 4,000 students every year.

"We wouldn’t be forced to cut valuable resources, as we do every year, if we managed our property assets responsibly," Mr. Matlow said.

The trustees have already voted to close Scarborough’s Timothy Eaton Business and Technical Institute in September.

It is the first school to be closed since the Liberal government issued a two-year moratorium on school closures in 2004.

Grade 9 was reportedly cancelled at West Toronto Collegiate because of too few students, and George Brown College has expressed interesting in leasing an empty floor in the building, said Shirley Hoy, chief executive officer of the Toronto Lands Corporation, the real estate arm of the school board. Accommodation review committees are currently looking at 13 schools.

Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education, said school closures are inevitable and declining enrolment is forcing schools to close across the province.

"It’s always emotional when it’s your own kid’s school," she said. "But there is a possibility when you’re amalgamating schools to ask: how can we make this work out best — whether it’s more programs in the school or a great gym?"

Etobicoke trustee Bruce Davis says rushing to shutter schools is shortsighted.

"When you close a school, the receiving school typically needs to have some capital improvement. Classrooms have to be added. The gym may not be adequate and we’re pretty strapped for capital dollars."

He also believes less populated schools can still be viable. The school board pegs optimal school size at 450 for elementary schools, and 1,200 for high school, a point that Mr. Davis opposes.

The decision to close a school should be made on a community-by-community basis, Ms. Hoy said.

"If they can’t close a school completely, maximize its use," she said.

The Toronto Lands Corporation manages about 74 of the board’s properties that are either not in use as schools or school sites that contain excess space.

In the last year, the corporation collected $10.5-million in leasing revenue and made $15-million through selling surplus or vacant property.

———

THE SCHOOLS IN QUESTION

TDSB committees are studying 13 Toronto schools to determine whether they need to be consolidated or closed:

-Baycrest Public School (Eglinton-Lawrence)

-Bendale Business and Technical Institute (Scarborough Centre)

-Cameron PS (Willowdale)

-Churchill PS (Willowdale)

-David and Mary Thomson CI (Scarborough Centre)

-Donwood Park Jr PS (Scarborough Centre)

-Edgewood PS (Scarborough Centre)

-Flemington Public School (Eglinton-Lawrence)

-Lawrence Heights Middle School (Eglinton-Lawrence)

-Sir Sandford Fleming Academy (Eglinton-Lawrence)

-Willowdale MS (Willowdale) Year Round Alternative School-

-Bathurst (Eglinton-Lawrence)

-Yorkview PS (Willowdale)