TDSB committee ponders big cuts to curtail $58M budget deficit

Swimming pools, music programming, outdoor education and student access to laptops could be cut at the Toronto District School Board as the board looks to dig itself out of a financial hole for the next academic year.

The board is facing a $58-million deficit for 2025-2026, and a report looking at options to balance the budget went to the TDSB's finance, budget and enrolment committee meeting on Wednesday.

Stacey Zucker, TDSB's associate director of modernization and strategic resource alignment, presented the report to the committee and said no decisions are being made yet. She said it's important to note that the board doesn't have its 2025-2026 core education funding yet. 

The committee will hold a special meeting on May 15, where there will be an update on core education funding. No final decisions are expected on the budget until closer to the end of June.

"These are options that are being put on the table," Zucker told the committee. 

According to the report, the options include:

• Pools and swim programming: Staff are recommending that the board close pools that it doesn't lease out to save $12.8 million.
• Itinerant music instructors program. Staff are recommending cutting the program to save $4 million. This would mean the board would get rid of its 74 itinerant music instructors (IMI), who teach specialized music skills that go above what's already required. The TDSB is the only board in the province with IMIs, who are not Ontario certified teachers.
• Devices. Distributing Chromebooks in Grade 7 as opposed to Grade 5 and making students keep the devices for six years would save $4.5 million.
• Outdoor education: Staff are recommending that outdoor education be provided on a "cost recovery basis" to save $4.7 million. That could mean possibly shuttering outdoor education centres that the board can't maintain.
• Continuing education: Staff say increasing fees could save $2.3 million.
• Class sizes: Increasing class sizes to "align as best as possible with ministry regulations" would save $7.5 million, staff say. The board says class sizes are smaller than required and that the move could spare it dozens of teachers. 

Zucker administrative changes could result in savings as well. These include:

• COVID Learning Recovery Fund: In 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, school boards across Ontario received one-time funding to support learning recovery as a result of COVID. If adjustments were made to staffing under this fund, the board could save $10.3 million.
• New procedures and improved support for employees: Staff say $5 million could be saved through ongoing changes to support staff and managers.
• Commitment to nurturing local schools: By reducing a supplement to staffing in some smaller schools, the board could save $600,000.
• Central budgets: If central departments reviewed their budgets to identify potential savings, the board could save $7.5 million.

The total savings from all of the options presented would be $59.2 million, according to Zucker.

Zucker noted that the board has consulted the public about its budget process.

That consultation has included four budget town halls from April 10 to 23, one hybrid town hall with students on April 24, and nine hours worth of delegations on Tuesday in which 73 people spoke and 18 provided written submissions. Staff have also begun a budget survey that has elicited more than 14,000 responses.

The TDSB already pitched the province on a plan to save money in the fall that would have brought its deficit down to $11 million, but the province recently rejected that plan and said it would appoint a financial investigator to help the board save money.

Board has had time to improve finances, province says

The Ontario government has given the TDSB "multiple opportunities … to address its financial situation," Education Minister Paul Calandra's press secretary, Emma Testani, said in a statement to CBC Toronto.

"To date, the board has not produced a trustee-approved financial recovery plan to respond to concerns that identify strategies to eliminate their deficits," she said.

Testani's statement said the government is "prepared to take additional action to ensure all school boards are focused on delivering the high-quality education our students deserve."

Suggested cut to pool programming draws attention

One of the recommended cuts that has perhaps caught the most attention so far impacts pool programming. The TDSB is looking to lay off 86 aquatic instructors if it closes the pools that it doesn't lease out.

The school board leases 27 of its 66 pools to the city and two more are leased privately for after school programming, meaning nearly half of its pools could shut down in a move the board report says could save $12.8 million. 

Shuttering the pools would not only impact students using them, says Coun. Josh Matlow, who started a petition against the cuts, along with TDSB trustee Shelley Laskin. 

"Losing these pools will also have an impact on the rest of our community because many people, including seniors and many others, rely on these pools," Matlow said. 

In a statement, TDSB chair Neethan Shan said, "it's important to note that no final decisions have been made," and it will be up to school trustees to make the final call as part of their budget process. 

"Community consultations are integral for Trustees as we examine the many paths to balance the budget this year," Shan said.

'Cuts hurt kids, it's not negotiable'

Kate Dupuis, whose two kids go to TDSB schools, says the province should properly fund education rather than make school boards look for ways to cut costs, especially for things that keep kids active. She also ran to be an NDP MPP in the past provincial election.

"I want trained, well-paid education workers in that pool with them to make sure kids are getting the best quality education they can," she said.

"Cuts hurt kids, it's not negotiable."

School boards say deficits not entirely in their control

The effort to cut costs comes as the provincial government investigates how efficiently school boards are using their funding and threatening to take over those who fail to balance their budgets.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) is facing its own $65.9-million deficit. In a statement, TCDSB chair Markus de Domenico said the board identified more than $80 million in savings in the last three years and $10 million more this year.

He said the board is waiting on a report from the consulting firm Deloitte LLP, who it's working with to find ways to cut costs. 

TDSB and TCDSB, however, attribute much of their deficits to things that are not within their control, like statutory benefits. 

The TDSB said it doesn't have enough funding to cover salaries for teachers and early childhood educators, and that grant revenue hasn't kept up with inflation. That's while its Catholic counterpart cited things like unfunded sick leave costs and having to keep underutilized schools open because of the provincial moratorium on school closures.

The financial probes come after trustees with the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board spent $190,000 in taxpayer money for a trip to Italy that included deluxe hotel rooms and a limo ride — all meant to buy art for schools.

Thames Valley District School Board also came under scrutiny from the ministry after spending about $40,000 at a staff retreat to Toronto — while the board faced a $7.6-million budget deficit.