pobod

You guys have to be kidding? Reformers and privatizers demand that school boards sell off all of their surplus properties before they ask higher levels of government for money to run the system.

They when they do exactly as you demand you say “oh we didn’t mean ones we like or this one or that one.”

Charters in the USA tell the courts that they are private organizations so that they don’t have to follow public labour laws. The system says OK you are private, then you must start paying rent for the space you use in NYC public schools “oh no we are public schools as well, you cannot make us pay rent.

It is the nature of the endless contraadictions that arise when private business tries to milk the public system for public money. Eva Moscowitz at success Academy pays herself way over $250 000 per year to run Success Academy but demands free rent in NYC schools. Nice work if you can get it. Most would call it corruption.

The public education structure has never been a democratic institute. And yet the public education stakeholders proclaims across Canada they stand up for democracy. TDSB is one prime example of running operations by the stealth model of communism while using democracy as their window dressing. “All for the common good” is a line often stated by the school district employees and trustees to covered up the mismanagement of school resources, in order to extract the best possible benefits to the education stakeholders within the public school district and to a exclusive list of outsiders who would profit greatly on closing down schools, over priced repairs, maintenance, and upgrades.

Who are losers? The public, especially when it comes to the public school buildings, funded by the public tax purse and yet are treated by the school boards as their personal fiefdom of real estate ventures and other profit seeking activities at the expense of the communities and yes green space.

That said, in the Toronto Star article - A comment - “The TDSB has admitted that they do NOT have a sustainability plan in place and have been struggling for 15 years to figure one out. What will happen when the TDSB runs out of “excess” properties to sell? How much more will tax paying citizen be penalized for the financial mismanagement by the TDSB?”

In the National Post - “Shelley Laskin, a school trustee for St. Paul’s, said all real-estate transactions are discussed in private at the board, and stressed that public consultation will occur. In the past, she said, the board has reversed decisions to sell after collecting public input. If it decides to proceed, the board must first offer its properties to other school boards or public institutions before putting it on the market.

“Nobody wants to sell property,” added Ms. Laskin. “But when we desperately need capital dollars because kids are in portables and are being bused… you have to be able to make difficult decisions.”
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/22/headmaster-of-private-school-operating-out-of-toronto-school-board-building-vows-to-fight-sale-of-property/

All done in secret, and its just like the good old Soviet Union model. So much for democracy eh? 

On a web site called - Keep Don Mills Green - a series of articles, and to which the story of the private Don Mills school is not over by a long shot. In the process of making the decision to sell in secret, the TDSB neglected to consult the community around the private school in Don Mills. “To lose this green space would mean we’d have to drive a kilometre to take our kids to a park. Which is unheard of, especially in Don Mills having been planned the way it was where quadrants were designed to have green space,” she said. “It’s sad to see the Toronto district school board not listening to the neighbours, or not even addressing the neighbourhood’s wants and needs.”
http://globalnews.ca/news/794044/parents-headmaster-try-to-save-private-school-property-slated-for-sale-by-tdsb/

You see the school’s green space and field is used by one and all who live in the community. Meanwhile, TDSB wants to sell the school property without consultation to the highest bidder, to put up another housing development. All in aid, to paved over every last stitch of green space in Toronto because the schools in the 21st century are no longer in need of green space…...so much easier for the TDSB to sell off the excess green space, paved the remainder for parking and tell the kiddies and the community they must think of the greater good.

In the comment section of the last link -  “To lose this green space would mean we’d have to drive a kilometre to take our kids to a park.”

Oh that’s hysterical.

Drive them half a mile to get exercise. Brilliant.”

Almost as hysterical as busing kids 15 kms across the city, just to close down a school and sell it to the highest bidder.

In the Ontario elementary school that I attended in the 1960s, had two football fields, one soccer field, two baseball diamonds, a volley ball court…..........only to be mowed down in the 21st century to make way for the new real estate development of townhouses. Where do the students go? They all have to be bused to the new school with little green space.

PS - watch the video in the last link - in the beginning of the video - check out the polished floors of the private school. You don’t see polished floors in the public schools - apparently the school boards can’t afford the polish but has the spare cash to pay $165 for an installed pencil sharpener or changing the light bulbs. 

Malkin,  spot on!

Smaller school boards are best for serving local communities.

Toronto school board is a poster child of what not to do as they are too big and   clumsy ..........

Nancy’s post makes the point.

When did they and others become big and silly…..........time machine…..hang on…....almost there…..................MIKE HARRIS!

Your post is as rich as Annie Kidder’s recent media blitz to promote P4E’s report on school councils and how they are not meeting the obligations under reg 612.  Both groups were there in the day——and both groups have some sort of collective amnesia.

still in the classroom - making it work.  Mirka