Dear Fellow Citizens,

On June 15 and June 22, 2016 Toronto District School Board will be making decisions about the sales of a few public school properties in Toronto.

 Multiple sales have been approved by school boards in Ontario in recent years. Their effects are devastating for the communities, especially in Toronto, where growing population is often deprived of the opportunity to educate their children in a public school in their neighbourhood. Condo buyers are often greeted with signs informing them that there is no space for their children in local public schools. Childcare centres and adult education centres that use school buildings are being forced to move out or close down because the TDSB decides to sell the 'empty' school. Scarce green spaces of school yards are being developed into condo towers, whose residents bus or drive their children to schools far outside the neighbourhood, contributing to gridlock, pollution, and unhealthy lifestyle.

 
On the surface, it appears that the decision to sell is the TDSB's, but in reality, the Board is facing a tremendous pressure from the Ministry of Education to dispose of what they call 'surplus properties'. If the Board does not sell any, the Ministry will not provide certain funding that multiple school buildings desperately need. This is why it is crucial to target the source of the problem – the provincial government that sees multi-million property disposal as a solution to a 3-billion problem of maintenance and repairs backlog.

Burning furniture to heat the house is a short-sighted approach that creates more problems than solutions, and we are asking our Members of Provincial Parliament to exercise their power to stop the irresponsible property disposal demanded by the Ministry of Education because it contradicts the mandate of the Ministry and the school boards.

What can you do?

1. Contact your Member of Provincial Parliament to demand to stop the irresponsible disposal of public school properties in the largest Canadian city that keeps growing.

http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do?locale=en

 
2. Contact your school Trustee to let them know what you think about such sales.

http://www.tdsb.on.ca/Leadership/Trustees.aspx

 

3. Come to the Toronto District School Board (5050 Yonge Street, Toronto) on June 15, 5:30 p.m. and

June 22, 2016, 4:30 p.m. to demand the trustees to say NO to the pressure to sell.

Check the schedule for updated time:

http://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/0/leadership/docs/boardmeetingschedule.pdf

 

4. Share this petition with everybody you can to look for solutions that create opportunities rather than deprive of them.

5. Continue reading if you are looking for more details and examples on the issue.

http://savetorontoschools.blogspot.ca/