Location, location, location

If the board gets away with closing some community schools in the poorer neighbourhoods of the city like Jane/Finch as it is trying to do now for politically convenient reasons how can it benefit financially beacuse as the People for Education Report on school closing wisely states, schools are closed for financial reasons not pedagogical ones you might ask.  (sentence too long for a blog)

I would.

After all, think of a couple of empty school sites next to the infamous high rises of the corridor.

Not very marketable.

Perhaps they could get the city to pave them over and build more affordable housing in the land of affordable housing but in that case the board would not get top dollar for their efforts.

No, the board is not looking for a short term profit here. It is thinking ahead.

Closing sites anywhere in the city psychologically will start the political ball rolling.

“Look,” they will say to Willowdale, “if the poorer people can make these sacrifices, why can’t you.”

As well, the more K-8 schools there are, in the city, the more pressure there will be to create others that fit the pattern.

That is what happened when North York decided junior highs were out and middle schools were in.

So the first fight against this agenda of manufacturing consent for communities to agree to act against their own interests will happen in the areas of the city less able to defend themselves.

But, perhaps, the board and the trustees will find that this is not such an easy nut to crack.

Lets keep an open mind

Chair Campbell has asked residents of the Heathercrest Park area to “keep an open mind.” and I would support him in this sentiment.

The only problem is that an “open mind” could work both ways.

He would like the crowd to go away and rest assured that their betters, the trustees and staff of the TDSB, will make all the right decisions. While we are all doing that, he gets to attend meetings of the Toronto Lands Corporation, as a board member, which is set up to sell school lands no matter what.

But what if this community and others kept their mind open in ways that did not trust the trustees? What if they used their little gray cells to formulate methods to stop the board and the province from closing schools and selling the land period?

The ARC process cuts the city into isolated chunks to manipulate residents and parents into accepting school closures. But these chunks have a lot in common with each other.

What if they got together and set an agenda of their own just like the staff and trustees of the board have done?

They could be quite a large force advocating for the preservation of small community schools and public property.They could disrupt meetings of the board and the TLC, calmly at first, with questions about their motivations. They could hold their MPPs accountable for this rape of public assets that is being promoted.

What if?

Thanks for the plan John.

What a timeline

The board is moving on a lot of school areas this year in spite of the election next year. But I think that they are thinking strategically. They must move on this because of the pressure from the province’s formula and because this is part of their Margret Thacher neo-liberal belief system.

So they decided to pick on the economically working class areas of the city because their ability to resist is less than say Willowdale.

If they could close 10 school sites by next June and they do not loose many trustees in the November election, then there will be a momentum to closes schools in the more affluent areas and they will be four years away from any retribution.

But what if this sparks some real interest in the board elections.

This could be interesting.

If you want to resist this maniacal sell off of our school lands, consider joining the Campaign for Public Education.

 

Trustees sell land only at their peril

Have a look at this article on Heathercrest Park. Etobicok Board bought the land and decided not to build a school three decades ago and is used as a community park.

Now that it is in the greedy hands of the Toronto Lands Corporation, residents are miffed that it could be turned into townhouses.

Chair Campbell, one of the most enthusiastic advocates of selling off school lands, had to face down his constituents on the issue. He wants residents to “keep an open mind” on the issue. What does that mean?

Does he think that these people have closed minds on this issue. I thought the board was the one with a closed mind here: they want to sell community property as quickly as possible.

Well, in one year’s time there will be an election and heads have rolled for lessor issues than this.

It is hard to unseat an incumbent but not impossible.

Watch out John.

P4E report worth reading

People for Education has a new school closing report and it is worth reading.

It points out that the main reason that board’s are closing schools is based on the provincial school funding formula not good pedagogy.

It does miss the point in Toronto where the board expects to sell off 40-50 school sites after it closes the community based schools on them. I supposed this to is a funding formula issue too since this is going to be done to pay for capital expenses that the formula should but does not cover.

But alas, P4E lives up to its milk-toast political agenda and does not propose any effective actions beyond some wording about community hubs that the province is not going to fund.

Political action will have to be taken mainly on the street level.

Protesting today a closed school ten years ago

A Protest at the School Programs Committee of the board 5050 Yonge St. 5:30 PM by the  Queen’s Plate Drive Parents and Community

Here is their message:

A Message to the Media
From 900, 910, 930 Queen’s Plate Drive Parents and Community

Please speak to the Toronto District School Board for us

In May 1999, the Toronto District School Board removed our children from their neighbourhood school, Humberwood Downs Junior Middle School, and forced them to attend Elmbank Middle School, which then added a junior school program. Elmbank was much further away and across very dangerous roads. This move has badly hurt our children and our community, as you will see from our attached presentation to the School Programs Committee, which we hoped to put forward on November 11, 2009.

Over the last 10 years we have protested the move the best we could, but most of us were new to Canada, we hardly spoke English at all, and we had few resources to understand or to fight the school system we experienced.

We are now trying to bring our problem to the Toronto Board but without success. We have been turned down in our request to speak to the School Programs Committee. They told us our problem was going to be handled “locally.” For us, that has stopped being a solution.

Our problem has been handled “locally” for a decade now, and nothing has changed for our children. Their situation may, in fact, have gotten worse.

Please help us tell our story. We will be on the steps of the Toronto District School Board at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, November 11 – a half an hour before the School Programs Committee meets – to tell you what has happened to our children and to answer any of your questions. We will then go to the School Programs Committee and pass out our presentation, with the hope that at least some of the trustees will pay attention.

We hope you will join us.

Hibo Hagi-Nur and Abdullah Wardhare
Co-Chairs 900, 910, 930 Queen’s Plate Drive Parents and Community
Contact: Phone: (416) 679-9568, Email: hhaginur@hotmail.com

School closing poster

My local ARC

I do not intend to follow all the ARCs that the board is setting up but most of them will have the same motive, close as many school sites regardless of the quality of the school and its value to the community.

I am interested in what is happening in my barrio, Jane/Finch. Here they are looking at reviewing schools in one of the neediest areas of the city. This is fairly typical of what is happening this year. Many of the schools being reviewed are in the U of poverty that the United Way has reported on.

Two years ago, Willodale, a relatively well off area was tackled with little success. The community resisted the closure of 9 schools and the sell off of almost 19 local school sites. The board probably learned a valuable lesson. Rich people really know how to resist. This year, they are being told that the enrollment crisis in their area is over. Just think, they could have closed community schools for no reason.

They hope, with any luck, that the poorer areas will be more pliable.

Back to Jane/Finch. The elementary schools under the knife, Blacksmith PS, Gosford PS, Driftwood PS and Shoreham PS as well as Brookview MS. All the elementary enrolments are between 250 to 350. You would think that schools of that size could serve our children and communities very well, and they do. So it will be very interesting to see what plans the board staff has hatched to change the area and the data that the proffer to mold the ARCs recommendations.

The Jane Finch ARC will have the usual members, hand picked by board staff as members of the ARC but the meetings are supposed to be public so if you are concerned about this or any other ARCed area, attend the meetings, talk with members, be critical of the process and the premises and the staff data.

As far as I am concerned, resistance is not futile.

Fight to keep community schools open.

By the way, if you want to post a report on a different ARC here, email me at erroly@sympatico.ca.

It’s a secret

The process of forming an ARC is not complicated but it does involve a lot of staff input. By the time the board votes on it, staff has formulated a plan stating which schools they want to close but that plan is not usually shown to the public.

Cynics might say that the ARC process is one that tries to manufacture community consent after all the facts have been presented to them by the staff so would it not be fair for the possible end results, according to staff, to be put on the table from the start?

Lets be honest, the ARC process is a school closing one. So what is the big secret? Residents do not need this condescension.

Resist the ARC

The board wants to close as many schools as possible and sell off the land. That is its stated grand plan.

To do this they have to follow the province’s public consultation process but this is hardly a true consultation.

Look at the board’s own Accommodation and Program Review report.

First the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) established by the Board has virtually hand picked members. Those members will be given well vetted information by board staff and while other input can come to the ARC from outside, that will be given only cursory attention.

“The superintendent of education shall provide information to the ARC concerning the review process and the ARC’s role. He/she shall articulate the terms of reference, reference criteria, and any program, planning, financial, and policy constraints that may impact the ARC’s recommendations.” (P4)

And in the end, all the input of the ARC can and sometimes is ignored if it happens to go against the board’s grand plan.

“After considering the ARC’s recommendations, staff shall develop its own recommendations and present them in a staff report to the Board.”(P8)

The final decision is, of course, the board’s but, if you listen to most of the trustees, they are dutifully following the grand plan.

So what’s a person to do?

• Hold meetings in the community with no board staff present.
• Get support from other organizations that support keeping community schools open.
• Get as many parents and residents active as possible.
• Hold you Trustee accountable for this destructive direction of the board.
• Make sure that you MPP knows that s/he is next.
• Do not let the board close your school without resistance.

The more we resist, the harder it will be for the Board to carry out its grand plan and the more local community schools will survive to serve children in the future.