province to serve as supervisor of the Toronto District School Board, with authority for all financial and administrative functions of the Board. This allowed Christie to supersede the authority of elected school trustees. The provincial government argued that the appointment was necessary, as the TDSB had not submitted a budget to the Ontario Minister of Education as legally required. Representatives of the TDSB claimed that they could not find the necessary operating expenses for the year, given provincial regulations which prohibited deficit spending. Christie balanced the TDSB’s budget through a dramatic spending reduction of $90 million. Under his watch, the TDSB eliminated many secretarial positions, phased out school-community advisors, child and youth counsellors, and attendance counsellors and reduced the number of vice-principals, cut outdoor education and adult education, and re-evaluated the position of social workers in the system. Christie’s staff reports were not made public, and some critics argued that there were no adequate checks or balances on his authority. Blackstone Partners carried out a review in 2006. They submitted a 113page report in January 2007.Blackstone Partners were “asked to determine if the facilities division had “effective governance.””The report showed “high costs of repairs, lots of workers and spotty results, and managerial “silos” that made it hard for principals to figure out whom to approach to get a job done.”Blackstone Partners gave 43 recommendations in the report.The school board claims a few have been carried out and others are in the works.When surveyed about a wide range of topics, the worst result was the school board’s maintenance and construction division. Eighty percent of principals didn’t believe the maintenance and construction division delivered good value for the money TDSB director Chris Spence “To use a football analogy, we are trying to move the yardstick. There is no quick North York Festival 2014
fix.” The Toronto Star reported that in recent investigation showed little has changed since that review. A high school principal “raised questions about the $143 cost of installing a pencil sharpener and the $19,000 cost of installing a sign on the school’s front lawn.” In 2007, again due to alleged mismanagement by the trustees, the board will try to submit a budget with a deficit of $84 million. The school board wants $3.6 million from the Toronto Star before it releases a database. The database shows “work orders showing what taxpayers have been charged for maintenance and construction projects at local schools. In June 2012, the Toronto Star asked for “an electronic copy showing three years of work at the TDSB.” The Ontario Ministry of Education Froze funding for the school board’s buildings project. The ministry cited the possibility of a $10 million to $11 million cost overrun for the retrofit of Nelson Mandela Park Public School. The project was originally priced at $21.7 million. Some of the school board’s trustees are “outraged”. Laurel Broten, Ontario’s Minster of Education, stated, “We are not happy they don’t know why” when talking about the overrun. She also stated that a supervisor may be sent in. Contract with Trade Council A top official from the Toronto District School Board stated that he has concerns about a “controversial contract” between the Trades Council and the Ontario Government and claims that the contract with the trades council is “politically motivated. Chris Bolton, the Chairman of the school board, stated that the Trade Council is a “major contributors to the Liberals” and even campaigned for the Liberals. A government spokesperson stated that Education Minister Laurel Broten decision to retain the Trade Council’s services
“nothing to do with politics.” Terms of the contract includes: “The TDSB will not be allowed to hire outside workers for some jobs. The school board won’t be allowed to hire outside workers even if it would cost taxpayers less. “The trades council is still allowed to choose all new workers for the publicly funded school board.” The Toronto District School Board, who pays the workers, doesn’t have a say on who is hired. A structured shift system will be preserved where the morning and afternoon shifts overlaps. This requires the school board to maintain extra trucks and vehicles. The school board has estimated “it could have sold off up to 300 trucks and other vehicles that would not be needed if the afternoon shift started when the morning shift ended. Immigration Act charges In 2001, Toronto School Board Trustee Sam Basra was convicted of Immigration Act charges and was forced under the Education Act to resign his seat. He pleaded guilty in August 2001 to selling fake offers of employment to potential immigrants for US$1,500.00 each. This came to light after being tipped by a former employee, police raided Basra’s paralegal firm and found 250 false letters of employment. In March 2001 Arjan Singh launched a $15 million lawsuit against Basra alleging that while doing paralegal work, Basra forged documents to make him think his rights case was active more than a year after it was closed. After much infighting among the trustees and inaction from then Chair of the Board Donna Cansfield to make an appointment to fill the vacant trustee seat left by Basra, a byelection was called for April 2002 costing the board $160,000.00. Stan Nemiroff defeated former Mayor of Etobicoke Bruce Sinclair in the by-election to become the new Ward 1 trustee representing Etobicoke North.
www.facebook.com/northyorkfestival
46