SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Too big to succeed

When I found out that the Toronto District School Board (tedious board) employed 8 plumbers, 2 sprinkler fitters, 1 insulation mechanic, and 1 steamfitter who made the Sunshine List (earning more than $100,000), I was shocked and appalled. Now I find out that almost all of the tedious board’s maintenance work is done by the Maintenance and Construction Skilled Trades Council, whose excesses make the tedious board’s sunshiners look like pikers. Click here and here for details about a $143 charge for screwing in a pencil sharpener, almost $3,000 for installing a simple electrical outlet, and $19,000 for installing a sign on a school’s front lawn - as well as the council’s involvement in electing complacent politicians so that the golden goose would keep on laying its wonderful eggs.

This is just the latest in a long list of scandals at the tedious board. Over the years, I’ve also heard lots of rumours about other abuses that stayed out of the limelight - for example, a highly-placed board bureaucrat whose swimming pool was built for him by board employees and a huge boondoggle involving the forced (and very expensive) installation of pa systems in every school.

The point is - the Toronto District School Board is too big. This kind of waste is inevitable and, even though every once in a while someone gets caught and a scapegoat gets blamed, there is no way that the tedious board can ever spend taxpayers’ money responsibly. At the risk of repeating myself, school boards should be abolished, and the money sent directly to individual schools.