Toronto District School Board
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Toronto District School Board, also known as TDSB, is the English-language public school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public francophone (Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest), English Catholic (Toronto Catholic District School Board), and French Catholic (Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud) communities of Toronto also have their own publicly funded school boards and schools that operate in the same area, but which are independent of the TDSB.
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[edit] History
The TDSB board was created in 1998 following the merger of the school boards for the former municipalities of York, East York, North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, as well as the Toronto and Metropolitan Toronto Public School Boards.
The head office moved from the old Toronto Public Board of Education office at 155 College Street to the 5050 Yonge Street location, adjacent to Mel Lastman Square. Prior to the 1998 amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto, the building was occupied by the North York Board of Education.
[edit] Organization
The TDSB is the largest school board in Canada[4] and the 4th largest in North America.
There are more than 270,000 students [5] in 558 schools within the TDSB. Of these schools, 451 offer elementary education, 102 offer secondary level education, and there are five adult day schools. The TDSB has 16 alternative elementary schools as well as 20 alternative secondary schools. TDSB has approximately 31,000 permanent and 8,000 temporary staff, which includes 10,000 elementary school teachers and 5,800 at the secondary level.[2]
Gerry Connelly was the last Director of Education. Dr. Christopher Spence, the Director of the Hamilton School Board and a former teacher in the TDSB system was recently took office[6] as the new Director. He started on July 1, 2009.
The school board's organizational mission is "to enable all students to reach high levels of achievement and to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values they need to become responsible members of a democratic society."[7]
Parent and Community involvement occurs at all levels of the school board system, from parental involvement at local schools, the involvement of local organizations at the school level and formal advisory committees at the Board level [8].
There has also been an effort to include more student involvement in the Toronto District School Board. The "Super Council" is an organization which acts as a student council for the entire board[9]. There has also been an attempt to place student input in the TDSB's infamous Equity Department through the second, and last, board-wide student group: Students Working Against Great Injustice[10]. Both groups have put together various events and have had much success in giving imput towards the decisions of the Board.[11]
[edit] Trustees
| Ward | Trustee | Ward Name |
|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | John Hastings | Etobicoke North |
| Ward 2 | John Campbell | Etobicoke Centre |
| Ward 3 | Bruce Davis | Etobicoke—Lakeshore |
| Ward 4 | Stephnie Payne | York West |
| Ward 5 | James Pasternak | York Centre |
| Ward 6 | Chris Tonks | York South—Weston |
| Ward 7 | Irene Atkinson | Parkdale—High Park |
| Ward 8 | Howard Goodman | Eglinton—Lawrence |
| Ward 9 | Maria Rodrigues | Davenport |
| Ward 10 | Chris Bolton | Trinity—Spadina |
| Ward 11 | Josh Matlow | St. Paul's |
| Ward 12 | Mari Rutka | Willowdale |
| Ward 13 | Gerri Gershon | Don Valley West |
| Ward 14 | Sheila Ward | Toronto Centre |
| Ward 15 | Cathy Dandy | Toronto—Danforth |
| Ward 16 | Sheila Cary-Meagher | Beaches—East York |
| Ward 17 | Michael Coteau | Don Valley East |
| Ward 18 | Gary Crawford | Scarborough Southwest |
| Ward 19 | Scott Harrison | Scarborough Centre |
| Ward 20 | Soo Wong | Scarborough—Agincourt |
| Ward 21 | Shaun Chen | Scarborough—Rouge River |
| Ward 22 | Nadia Bello | Scarborough East |
| Student Trustee | Gorick Ng | |
| Student Trustee | Fan Wu |
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Disciplinary cases
Since the establishment of the Toronto District School Board in 1998, the Ontario College of Teachers had publicly released detailed information about disciplinary cases with incidences dating back to the 1960’s. The Discipline Committee held public hearing into allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence against twenty-one Toronto District School Board Teachers up until 2006. Many of the cases involved physical, sexual and psychological abuse against students. All twenty-one Teachers had their Certificates of Qualification and Registration revoked. Some of the cases involved criminal charges, with jails terms against teachers in addition to the disciplinary action from the teachers college. [2] [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
In March 2007, Brad Parsons, a 16 year-old grade 11 student at Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute was expelled from the Toronto District School Board for starting a section on the popular Facebook website that made denigrating and disturbing comments about a vice-principal at the school. Hundreds of fellow students stood up for Mr. Parsons in his defence by protesting his expulsion. The result was four other students faced 20-day suspensions for what the school calls cyber bullying and what the students term as freedom of speech. [24]
In 2007, a highly publicized sex scandal within the Toronto District School Board took place. Paola Queen, a female 35-year-old high school family studies teacher from Nelson A. Boylen Collegiate Institute was charged with sex exploitation following allegations that she had been romantically involved with a 15-year-old male student. Ms. Queen became pregnant by the 15 year old student and is expecting the baby in July 2007 [25]
In 1998, the Ontario College of Teachers informed the school board that 108 teachers will not be returning to the classroom in September due to not being members in good standing with the College. Fraud investigators from two police forces followed up on files submitted by two teachers after College staff discovered that the documents they had submitted appeared to be forged. [26]
[edit] Race
On November 14, 2005, the Ontario Human Rights Commission reached a settlement with the Toronto District School Board following a Commission-initiated complaint against the Board in July 2005. On July 7, 2005 the Ontario Human Rights Commission initiated a complaint against the Toronto District School Board in the public interest and on behalf of racialized students and students with disabilities alleging that the application of the Safe Schools Act and the Toronto District School Board’s policies on discipline are having a disproportionate impact on racial minority students and students with disabilities. The complaint alleges that the TDSB had failed to meet its duty to accommodate racialized students and students with disabilities in the application of discipline, including providing adequate alternative education services for racial minority students and students with disabilities who are suspended or expelled and that the above amounts to a failure on the part of the TDSB to provide equal access to education services and that this constitutes discrimination and contravenes sections 1, 11 and 9 of the Ontario Human Rights Code. The TDSB accepts and acknowledges a widespread perception that the application of Ontario’s school disciplinary legislation, regulations and policies can have a discriminatory effect on students from racialized communities and students with disabilities and further exacerbate their already disadvantaged position in society.[27][28]
In 2005, controversy erupted when the TDSB's Board Chair Sheila Ward and Executive Officer of Student and Community Equity, Lloyd McKell, spoke in favour of “Black-focused schools”[13][14]. The proposal brought about a media backlash, as many interpreted this as a "Black-only" school. After long and sometimes raucous debate, the proposal for an Afrocentric school was adopted and registration began[15]. Similar controversy had taken place in the North York Board of Education in the 1980’s when the board attempted to turn Georges Vanier Secondary School into a black-only school. [29]
[edit] School board issues
In 2002, the Government of Ontario stripped all power and authority from the school board trustees because they failed to balance the board's budget. Paul Christie was appointed by the 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, 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[16]. In 2007, again due to alleged mismanagement by the trustees, the board will try to submit a budget with a deficit of $84 million. [30]
In December 2001, a $70 million class-action lawsuit was filed against the Toronto District School Board on behalf of the parents of special needs students who were sent home during the boards support workers strike in April 2001. The suit claimed that 27,000 special needs students were discriminated against on the basis of their disabilities because they were sent home during the month long strike while the schools stayed open for their able-bodied counterparts. The claims were based on the fact that they weren’t permitted to go to school and missed a month of school while everyone else was able to go. The suit also claimed that the Toronto District School Board should stop treating special needs students as lesser students. The four-week strike, led by 13,000 support workers ended in early May 2001[17].
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 of 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 display of lack of leadership from then Chair of the Board Donna Cansfield to make an appointment to fill the vacant trustee seat left by Basra, a by-election 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.[31][32][33][34]
[edit] High schools
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[edit] Vehicles
TDSB has a varierty of vans and small trucks inherited by the former school boards. Older trucks have been retired, but some retain their old colours (namely Board of Education of North York). As for school buses, they are now contracted out to private operators. The Scarborough Board of Education, North York Board of Education and Toronto Board of Education had their own fleets.
[edit] Garages and offices
- Eglinton between Kennedy and Midland – Scarborough Board of Education garage (re-developed)
- Scarborough Civic Centre – Scarborough Board of Education
- 2 Civic Centre Court – Etobicoke Board of Education
- City of York Municipal Offices – York Board of Education
- East York Municipal Offices – East York Board of Education
- Headquarters – North York Board of Education
[edit] References
- ^ "Facts and Figures". Toronto District School Board. http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=302&menuid=3654&pageid=3049. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
- ^ a b Connelly, Gerry (2006). "The 2004-05 Financial Results" (PDF). Director's Annual Report,2004-05. http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/about_us/director/docs/TDSBAnnReport0405Rev.pdf. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
- ^ "Director". Toronto District School Board. http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=163&menuid=613&pageid=482. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
- ^ Connelly, Gerry (2006). "A Message from the Director" (PDF). Director's Annual Report,2004-05. http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/about_us/director/docs/TDSBAnnReport0405Rev.pdf. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
- ^ http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=302&menuid=3654&pageid=3049
- ^ http://www.tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/room.asp?show=allNews&view=detailed&self=17584
- ^ http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=171&menuid=668&pageid=534
- ^ http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=91&menuid=314&pageid=242
- ^ http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/viewItem.asp?siteid=199&menuid=973&pageid=711
- ^ http://tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=10274&menuid=15686&pageid=13877
- ^ http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/programs/Equity_in_Education/docs/Equitable%20Schools%20Newsletter%20Jan-Feb%202009.pdf
- ^ "Trustees". Toronto District School Board. http://www.tdsb.on.ca/boardroom/trustees/index.asp. Retrieved 2006-06-08.
- ^ http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1126753727013_118/?hub=CanadaAM
- ^ http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/277427
- ^ http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081107/afrocentric_school_081107/20081107/?hub=TorontoNewHome
- ^ Trish Worron, "Education democracy an illusion", Toronto Star, 12 July 2003, F6.
- ^ Nicholas Keung and Kristin Rushowy, "Toronto School Board sued for bias", Toronto Star, 8 December 2001, E3.
- ^ "Public board to merge Bendale and Thomson high schools" The Scarborough Mirror. Scarborough, Ont.: Feb 5, 2009. pg. 1
- ^ "Timothy Eaton school closure angers parents." The Scarborough Mirror. Scarborough, Ont.: Apr 21, 2009. pg. 1
[edit] See also
- Toronto Catholic District School Board, the English-language Catholic school board that also operates in Toronto
- Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest, the French-language school board that also operates in Toronto
- Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud, the French-language Catholic school board in Toronto
- Middle schools in Toronto (also includes Toronto-area schools that are not part of the TDSB)
- Elementary schools in Toronto (also includes Toronto-area schools that are not part of the TDSB)
- Schools in the TDSB
