Latest news with #TVDSB
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Expect 'uncertainty and angst', says TVDSB interim leader to teachers
Social Sharing Southwestern Ontario's largest school board is working toward balancing its finances with staff now aware that it will cost some people their jobs. Employees received an email from the Thames Valley District School Board's (TVDSB) interim Education Director Bill Tucker on Tuesday that CBC News has obtained. It provides an update on the financial recovery plan that is being led by a provincially appointed supervisor, labour and employment lawyer Paul Boniferro. Tucker wrote that Boniferro's mandate to balance the TVDSB's budget, and leave it with a 2 per cent reserve fund, will mean major restructuring decisions. "Uncertainty and angst about one's employment and job description will be present throughout the entire system," Tucker wrote. The decision to have Boniferro take control of London's public school board and pause the role of its elected trustees came after the province conducted a review last fall in the wake of a $40,000 staff retreat. The review wrapped up in April and the final report showed instances of mismanagement, including promotions and executive pay raises without trustee approval, as well as a nearly $17 million deficit. Tucker said Tuesday that Boniferro will be in the role until at least the next school year, and trustees will continue to have no input into decisions. CBC News has made multiple requests to speak to Boniferro but has not received any response. 'We're talking livelihoods' Tucker said that Boniferro is currently vetting all open job postings within the school board suggesting cuts are coming. He noted some positions are funded by Ministry of Education grants and are required to be filled. He called this the "first step of a bigger picture that will become much clearer as time goes on." Tucker admitted he knows they are not "just talking about jobs." "We are talking about livelihoods, family incomes and in many cases financial security for homes," he wrote. "We are talking about people." He said the hope is to make affected employee groups aware in a timely manner and deliver news personally. The Minister of Education Paul Calandra declined an interview with CBC News. In a statement, spokesperson Emma Testani said the board needs to focus on administrative savings. "Core education funding should go towards supporting teachers and students in the classroom," Testani said. While Tucker expressed his regret to staff the decisions the board needs to make, he stressed that they need to do what is best for TVDSB. "I am also sad as I write this memo to everyone. But we must keep our eye on what is best for the Board because at the end of the day, what is best for the Board will translate into good things happening for students."
CBC
19-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Audit shows how promotions and pay bumps contributed to TVDSB's $16M deficit
Social Sharing An investigation into the Thames Valley District School Board's finances found instances of mismanagement, including promotions and executive pay raises without trustee approval. The audit into southwestern Ontario's largest school board was done by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) over the course of 10 month, finishing in mid-April. It was quietly posted to the province's website. The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) currently faces a $16-million deficit. In April, shortly after the audit was finished, the province appointed a supervisor to oversee the board, and took authority away from trustees. Those decisions were made after it was discovered that senior administrators spent $40,000 on a retreat to Toronto last fall. The director of education, Mark Fisher, resigned six months later and numerous senior executives remain on paid leave. PWC's 142-page audit details how TVDSB didn't comply with its own compensation rules that would become the "underlying reasons for its deteriorating financial position." It identified a total of seven instances of non-compliance, including two where the board didn't abide by its own policies and procedures, and five violations of the Ministry of Education's approved compensation rules for senior administration. The report found Fisher promoted the board's General Counsel, Ali Chahbar into a superintendent role, without the board's approval during the 2022-23 school year. The position came with a $24,000 pay upgrade. In July 2024, Fisher promoted a superintendent to an associate director of education position with a $40,000 salary bump, again without board approval. The individual returned to a superintendent role a few months later in October but continued to ear $239,000, due to a clause in the contract. The superintendent is not named in the report, however, CBC has previously reported that superintendent Andrew Canham was an associate director during that time. He is on a paid leave. Chahbar also resigned as chair of the London Police Service Board earlier this month, citing health reasons. Wages for the director of education, superintendent, and executive officer roles rose by 8.8 per cent, 27.9 per cent and 17.9 per cent, respectively, the audit found. COVID costs Other infractions included two new executive hires who were paid more than they should have been, the audit concluded. When the pandemic hit, Fisher, superintendents and executive officers received a 10 per cent stipend for the increased scope of their work, despite a prohibition on new compensation elements at the time. "These stipends ranged between $15,526 to $23,950 annually, per executive, for a period of 20 months," the report said, adding trustees approved the stipend after seeking externa legal advice. TVDSB went from having a $3.5 million surplus in 2020-21 to an in-year deficit of $17.32 million in 2023-24, the report said. The board's financial situation is expected to improve in the 2024-25 school year as the deficit drops to $16.8 million, it added. 'There needs to be a refocus' union head says Craig Smith, president of the Thames Valley local of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), said this audit should serve as a lesson in rethinking priorities that put the focus on supporting students and teachers. "I think we've drifted a bit away from that and we need to use this as an opportunity," Smith said Monday. "This isn't just one trip to Toronto that caused this. This has been a situation that's been in the making for a number of years. I think as tough as it's going to be for the next year or two for the, board, it's very critical that it happens and it happens right." Staff absenteeism a problem The audit also found the board's deficit was not made any better by the high level of staff absenteeism that led to higher costs for supply staff. PWC also noted the over-projected enrolment rates that resulted in $3.5 million excess spending for teachers in 2023-24 and $2.4 million in 2024-25. The audit also found increased spending on technology and cybersecurity initiatives. "The board was unable to adjust its expenses promptly when the financial pressures became apparent during the revised estimates period and later in the year," the report said. "Consequently, TVDSB had hired additional teachers and incurred other expenses that could not be retracted due to contractual obligations. To mitigate this in the future, TVDSB plans to adopt a more conservative approach to enrolment forecasting, relying on actual registrations without upward adjustments for development or migration." Report finds cost-cutting measures The board has already implemented cost cutting measures to reduce the 2024-25 deficit between $15.9 million to $13.7 million, depending on their success. These include: a reduction in bus monitoring staff procurement savings educational assistant return-to-work programs transitioning from in-person to online summer school merging schools reviewing the door-to-door transportation model ending Beal's transportation program While it's important to make certain cuts, they shouldn't be made just for the sake of saving money, Smith said, adding that the board instead needs to look at how these cuts are impacting services for students. "There's also the management culture of the board, it's very top-heavy in terms of administration and that needs to be looked at seriously because there are fixed costs the board can't avoid, but there are some things they need to do."
CBC
06-03-2025
- CBC
London school board lawyer Ali Chahbar latest exec on leave amid senior leadership upheaval
Social Sharing Another senior leader at the Thames Valley District School Board is on a leave of absence as the organization continues to review its operations following several high profile scandals that saw the province step in. Ali Chahbar, the TVDSB's in-house lawyer, was removed from the position earlier this week, CBC News learned Thursday. The leave was effective as of March 3, interim director of education Bill Tucker confirmed. Last week, board chair Beth Mai announced she was taking a leave from her position for health reasons. Over the course of the last six months, more than five other senior leaders have left the board, some on paid leaves of absence, others for new positions. Last fall, the province announced it was conducting a management audit of the TVDSB, as well as an investigation into its spending. It came after senior leaders spent $40,000 on a three-day planning retreat in Toronto, and ran a flower-arranging workshop for communications staff. Tucker was appointed interim director when Mark Fisher was put on leave in September. Others who have left include Associate Director Linda Nicholls, Katie Osborne, the superintendent of education, and Cheryl Weedmark, the director of communications. Tucker would not comment on the nature of Chahbar's leave, or if it was linked to the leadership and organizational review he is tasked with conducting. Chahbar's salary is listed on the Sunshine List as just over $199,000, plus benefits. He's been with the school board since 2018. The board is staring down a $16 million deficit, which rose when forecast enrollment dropped this year. CBC News did reach out to Chahbar Wednesday for comment, and this story will be updated if he responds. The school board has held a series of in-camera meetings in recent days, includine one that saw Mai step aside for several weeks.
CBC
30-01-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Thames Valley school board backtracks decision to move French immersion students to Clarke Road
The region's public school board has reversed its plan to move some French immersion students to Clarke Road Secondary School after not enough kids registered for the program along with difficulty finding teachers, CBC News has learned. The decision was made by Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) trustees during a meeting on Tuesday, following a discussion closed to the public. A brief note was posted to the board's website, Thursday morning, a day after officials say they notified staff and families. "There are recruiting challenges in the number of available qualified French immersion teachers, not only in Thames Valley but across the province and there's also a concern about enrolment viability," said board chair Beth Mai. "The current registration numbers at [Clarke Road] didn't meet the threshold that we would have to be able to provide a sustainable program to students over a period of years." Mai would not disclose how many students registered for the program, citing privacy concerns of the closed session discussion. Clarke Road would have been the board's sixth high school French immersion site in the region, and the third in London, in addition to existing programs at Sir Frederick Banting and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary Schools. TVDSB decided to create a site at Clarke Road in the 2023-24 school year due to growth pressures and the school being one of three high schools below its optimal enrolment numbers. However, the decision received significant pushback from parents who didn't want their kids to change schools and expressed concerns during public consultations on the matter held in 2023. M.J. Kidnie has kids in Grades 9 and 11 who are in Banting's French immersion program. Although they wouldn't have been required to go to Clarke Road, she believes cancelling the new program is great news for French immersion in the city. "It became clear to me that the FI program as it exists now would be impoverished by adding another location in the city. If you don't have a fairly large cohort in Grade 9, it dwindles away and that means kids can't continue to get the French immersion courses in Grade 11 and 12," she said. "I do wish the board had listened to parents because the results they found that they didn't get students enrolled, we predicted that. We didn't know about the teacher piece but I think not listening to parents led to confusion and uncertainty." Kidnie said plans for Clarke Road also pushed some parents to proactively enrol their children into French immersion in the region's Catholic school board, which is the fastest growing in Ontario. Why are there so many non-Catholic students in London's Catholic high schools? Erma Schadenberg was one of those parents who enrolled her Grade 8 daughter at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary (MTS) School when she graduates from Louise Arbour Public School, which typically feeds into Banting but boundary changes would have required her to go to Clarke Road. However, since the board's reversal, Schadenberg said her daughter will now go to Banting, instead of MTS, adding that it's where her daughter wanted to go all along. "I was very impressed with Mother Teresa and what they had to offer, but my daughter did choose to go back to Banting," she said. "I also have two Banting graduates so there's a bit of a family legacy that is being factored in." In a statement, TVDSB said the decision is also made in part due to the need to prioritize financial resources responsibly. It said it will concentrate French immersion resources at Banting and Laurier "ensuring they remain well-equipped and accessible."
CBC
28-01-2025
- Business
- CBC
London-area school boards get more than $260M to build 6 new schools
Six new schools will be built in the London area as the public and Catholic school boards secured nearly $267 million in funding from Ontario's Ministry of Education. The London District Catholic School Board (LDSCB) got $173 million to build three schools, including a new $100-million high school in north London, an elementary school in southwest London and another high school in St. Thomas. The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) has received $93.4 million to build three elementary schools in southwest London, north London and Thamesford. All public elementary schools and the north London Catholic high school will also have 88-space licensed child care centres. A funding breakdown of each school board and its expected student population can be found at the bottom of this story. With record-high enrolment, the London-area Catholic school board is the fastest growing in Ontario, and officials are "thrilled" with the funding that will help accommodate more students, LDCSB's director of education, Vince Romeo, said in a news release. "We continue to be focused on the needs of our students, and it shows. We are breaking student enrollment figures each year, and we continue to welcome new employees to our system each and every day," said Romeo. LDSCB added more than 1,500 students this year for a total of 27,500, along with hiring more than 1,500 employees in recent years, officials said. Last fall, both school boards asked the province for 10 new schools and an addition to an existing school as they were managing the strain of an increasing student population. Construction projects underway At the time, the Catholic board asked for about $300 million in capital funding for four new elementary and two new high schools. The Thames Valley board sought more than $130 million to fund four new elementary schools and a 207 pupil addition to West Nissouri Public School in Thorndale. The Catholic board opened St. Gabriel Elementary School in northwest London this month, with elementary schools in northeast London and the Komoka-Kilworth area in the planning stages and a new high school under construction. LDCSB also added 130 new portables over the last three school years, including 50 for the 2024-2025 school year. This latest funding from the province is part of a larger $1.3 billion investment that will create more than 25,000 student spaces and more than 1,600 new licensed daycares at 23 schools across Ontario. TVDSB now has 10 school construction projects underway that will help meet the needs of the region's growing communities, officials said in a news release on Monday. "This investment means families can access schools closer to home, in the communities where they live," said Bill Tucker, TVDSB's interim director of education. "This is about more than new buildings, it's about ensuring our students and families feel supported and connected as they grow and thrive in these neighbourhoods." How much will each new school cost? Thames Valley District School Board: Southwest London elementary school: $43.6 million for 934 students. Thamesford elementary school: $23.5 million for 479 students from junior kindergarten to Grade 4. North Central London elementary school: $26.3 million to accommodate 514 students. London District Catholic School Board:
