TDSB considering cuts to programming amid $20M deficit and many trustees are concerned

The Toronto District School Board is considering cuts to some of its programming to make up for a $20.8-million deficit for the next school year and many trustees are concerned. 

In a report on options to balance the 2024-2025 budget, staff have recommended program changes to continuing education, including the elimination of the Learn4Life — Adult General Interest Courses program, and changes to outdoor education.

Staff are proposing that the board eliminate general interest and seniors' daytime community programs and refer adult learners to other programs available in the community.

As well, staff propose the board decrease the number of sites where International Languages and African heritage programs are offered while ensuring equity of access. Staff are also recommending the board run adult day schools at fewer sites.

Trustee Shelley Laskin, among others, spoke out against the proposed cuts at a special meeting of the TDSB's finance, budget and enrolment committee on Tuesday.

"I just don't accept eliminating these programs without a very public process," Laskin told the meeting. 

Laskin said the Learn4Life general interest community programs are mentioned on the TDSB's website on its "About Us" page and the program is part of the TDSB's values. The site reads: "We serve approximately 238,000 students in nearly 600 schools throughout Toronto, and more than 100,000 life-long learners in our Adult and Continuing Education programs."

Through the Learn4Life program, the TDSB offers a wide array of courses, from bird watching to bridge, sewing to Spanish, and piano keyboarding to printmaking.

Trustee Dan MacLean added: "These are very valuable programs to those that enjoy them."

As for outdoor education, staff are recommending eliminating Grade 6 student weekend trips to the Scarborough Outdoor Education Centre at Camp Kearney, northeast of Huntsville, Ont. They are also recommending the board charge transportation costs to participating schools for overnight trips to its overnight outdoor education centres, and increase user fees for outdoor education day centres.

'We're not like a city that can raise taxes,' chair says

Colleen Russell-Rawlins, TDSB's director of education, said at the start of the meeting that the board has to engage in a "difficult conversation" about proposed cuts that many will find untenable.

"For us as staff, we know that not all of the options will meet with your approval or the public's approval," Russell-Rawlins said.

According to the report, the general interest and seniors' daytime programs had a $680,000 deficit in 2022-2023. The report says course fees were raised by 20 per cent in 2023-2024 to cover more of the costs, but enrolment declined by 15 per cent. Cutting the programs is expected to result in a savings of $694,954.

Earlier on Tuesday, TDSB Chair Rachel Chernos Lin said the board needs more help from the Ontario government.

"We're not like a city that can raise taxes," Chernos Lin told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

"It's really important that the province come to the table and work with us to find solutions that are cost effective, but that are also supportive of the communities that we serve," she added.

At Queen's Park on Tuesday, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the TDSB has been running a deficit for decades.

"It is my expectation that TDSB will balance their budgets, as every other school board is virtually on track to do this year," Lecce said. "It is my expectation for TDSB and for every board in Ontario that they need to do what is required by law, which is balance their budgets with more funding and fewer kids within their care."

NDP leader Marit Stiles, however, told reporters that school boards across the province have been struggling. 

"We are on the cusp of a significant crisis in education. It is our kids that are paying the price and we as a society we're going to pay the price down the road," Stiles said.

No final decision on budget until April 2

In the report, staff said the Education Act requires school boards to adopt a balanced budget. The board has a structural deficit, which means it spends more than it receives in funding on an annual basis. 

Staff said there are a number of items contributing to the structural deficit that are not within the board's control.

These items include: increases in the employer portion of Canada Pension Plan contributions; the cost of operating under-utilized schools due to the Ontario education ministry's moratorium on school closures; and replacement costs for sick leave.

The report says since 2012, it has been reported that the provincial average number of sick days taken by school board employees has doubled from an average of 8 to 16 days per year.

The school board hasn't made any final decisions yet.

Public delegations will be heard at a meeting next Tuesday, the committee will make recommendations to the board next Wednesday, and the TDSB will approve its 2024-2025 at a special budget meeting on April 2.

Trustees voted in favour, at the end of the meeting, to bring the starting deficit position from $20.8 million to $27.6 million — by adding back the vice-principal and safety positions that were assumed to be reduced in the original projection, at a cost of $6.8 million — and that the positions be added back before the board determines options to balance the 2024-2025 budget.