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Parents, community members and school trustees are speaking out against the Toronto District School Board’s expected cuts at some of the city’s most vulnerable schools.
The TDSB announced last month that it expects to cut 289 teaching positions at elementary and secondary schools in the next academic year due to declining enrolment.
The Elementary Teachers of Toronto said in an April 7 news release that those cuts would eliminate 145 elementary teachers in the Model Schools for Inner Cities program.
The model schools program supports students impacted by extreme poverty with additional teaching staff, resources and extracurricular opportunities.
School trustee Alexis Dawson said the community was angry and frustrated by the board’s decision to take away from a program that serves “56,000 of the most vulnerable students in the TDSB.”
Dawson, along with parents and community members, called on Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Paul Calandra to continue funding model schools and to preserve critical staffing.
WATCH | Teacher layoffs were announced by the TDSB last month:
TDSB to cut 289 teaching positions as student numbers decline, board says
The Toronto District School Board says it expects to cut up to 289 teaching positions next school year due to declining enrolment, though the final number isn’t set. CBC’s Tyler Cheese breaks down what we know.
The “model school” label is determined by the learning opportunities index (LOI), which ranks schools on the measure of external challenges affecting student success, according to the school board’s website. There are 150 in the TDSB.
The website states that the LOI was developed to ensure vulnerable students can have better access to school resources and to help allocate staff within the district.
Model schools have helped reduce opportunity gaps, increase academic achievement and improve literacy and numeracy development, Dawson said.
“This proves that higher need schools can achieve strong outcomes with the right supports and resources,” she said.
CBC News reached out to the TDSB and the province for comment.
Toronto’s public schools are ‘under attack’: parent
Changes at model schools will impact the lives of thousands of current and future young people facing economic and social challenges, said parent Bibi Safraw Hanif, whose children attend Firgrove Public School.
Cuts would also reduce students’ access to extracurricular opportunities that help “level the playing field,” she said.
“These schools are more than buildings where children attend classes. They are safe spaces, community hubs and lifelines,” she said.
While some TDSB schools are able to fundraise over $300,000, others barely manage to get $300, said Omar Khan, community co-chair of the TDSB’s Inner City Community Advisory Committee and a parent at Firgrove.
That’s why the LOI was created — to balance the resources available to students across Toronto, he said.
WATCH | Critics say low-income students will be hit most by outdoor education program cuts:
TDSB makes more cuts, this time to outdoor education programs
The Toronto District School Board says it has made the ‘difficult decision’ to close outdoor education programs at five centres. CBC’s Michelle Song spoke to advocates who say cuts will hurt low-income students in particular.
“The future of public education in Toronto is under attack,” he said, adding Ontario’s public school system used to give kids, “regardless of their postal code, a chance to achieve their dreams.”
That standard, however, has been diminished by Ford and Calandra, who are pushing a “model of extreme inequality,” said Khan. He said 15 out of 19 schools in Ford’s riding of Etobicoke North were model schools.
“By allowing this program to be gutted, the premier is giving a massive middle finger to the children, the parents and the whole community that’s in his backyard,” he said.
The program has been extensively studied since its development 20 years ago, said Vidya Shah, a former model school teacher.
The program narrowed the achievement gap, especially in literacy and numeracy scores, improved credit accumulation for high school students and increased parent engagement, she told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Friday.
“Likely what’s going to happen [with the cuts] is that [students’] needs are going to go unaddressed and the gap is going to widen,” said Shah.
The TDSB’s recent cuts have included ending outdoor education programs at five centres, laying off 218 central administration staff and cutting 40 vice-principal positions for the upcoming school year.
