Latest news with #ThamesValleyDistrictSchoolBoard
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Boundary adjustments allow for more schools in London and Strathroy
Future boundary adjustments in London and Strathroy will allow for the construction of more schools in growing areas. Future boundary adjustments in London and Strathroy will allow for the construction of more schools in growing areas. The Thames Valley District School Board announced future boundary adjustments in London and Strathroy, which allows for the construction of more schools in growing areas. A new elementary school is under construction in the Summerside neighbourhood and will open as early as September 2026. Some students attending two schools nearby are expected to move to the new facility once it opens. In Strathroy, a new school will be coming to the south end. This will take pressure off Mary Wright Public School, along with three others in the region. According to board members, Grade 8 students will have the option to remain at their current school when the new schools open.
Hamilton Spectator
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Doug Ford's education minister says ‘we have to change the way school boards behave'
Ontario school boards need to 'modify or change' and the government is taking steps to force more accountability, says Education Minister Paul Calandra. 'I have said this since the day that I was sworn into the file, that school boards should be put on notice: If you don't do this, if you don't start putting parents, teachers and students first, then I will do it for you, because that is what people expect,' Calandra said Tuesday in the legislature. Calandra again took a hard line regarding school boards, after being asked about a recent report that detailed how often children with disabilities are being restrained or excluded from classrooms, and later about unsuccessful moves by the Waterloo Catholic board to ban the Pride flag. 'We have to modify or change the way school boards react and behave,' Calandra said. 'The Ministry of Education needs to ensure that there's a more unified level of response from our school boards. Perhaps we've given too much autonomy to school boards and they are making decisions that are not always in the best interests of students, parents and teachers.' Just last week, Calandra ordered financial probes at a handful of boards — including the Toronto public and Catholic — and announced the Thames Valley District School Board would be run by a provincial supervisor. But NDP Leader Marit Stiles, a former school trustee, said most challenges tie back to inadequate funding and claimed the government is targeting boards as a distraction. Despite spending more on education each year, about $29 billion, that amount has not kept up with inflation or the real costs boards face, and Stiles said that overall, per-student funding has decreased by $1,500 under the Ford government. 'You should know that every school board in the province is running a deficit in special education,' Stiles said. 'They're spending more than they're getting from this government. Not only has the government failed to provide guidance for schools on these issues — seclusion, restraints, exclusion — but there's also no provincial data being tracked. Instead, school boards are creating and implementing their own policies.' Green MPP Aislinn Clancy noted the controversies at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, where some trustees 'have been trying to ban' the rainbow pride flag. 'Unfortunately, these hateful actions are just the tip of the iceberg at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board,' she told the legislature, including a recent $200,000 bill for legal fees related to code-of-conduct issues among trustees. 'This style of American politics has no place in Ontario school boards,' she said. Calandra agreed, adding that 'when school boards get into politics, when the classroom becomes political, it is the students who suffer.' Patrick Etmanski, president of the local Catholic teachers union, said trustees are wading into issues — such as flag raising, or what books school libraries are allowed to stock — that are beyond their mandate. 'They spent $200,000 in the last year on lawyer bills for internal bickering,' Etmanski said. 'It's incredible.' Both the Toronto boards are running large deficits, and the Thames Valley board landed in hot water after administrators took a pricey retreat at the former SkyDome hotel in Toronto. The Brant Catholic board also came under fire after four trustees took a $150,000 trip to Italy to purchase artwork for schools. Calandra has named Paul Boniferro to run the Thames Valley board, a veteran labour and employment lawyer.
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
06-03-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Rural school buses cancelled Thursday due to icy road conditions
Environment Canada issued a flash-freeze warning for the London area and southwestern Ontario Thursday morning, with temperatures forecast to fall rapidly a day after warmer temperatures melted a significant amount of snow. All school buses for Thames Valley and Catholic schools in Middlesex, Oxford, Elgin counties and the Red Zone have been cancelled for the day, while buses inside of London will start on schedule. "Ponding water, slush and any falling precipitation will freeze as temperatures drop," the weather agency said in a statement. "Take extra care when walking or driving in affected areas. Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions." The roads are expected to quickly become icy and slippery as temperatures fall below the freezing mark. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots will become hazardous. A full list of bus cancellations can be found on which oversees school bus operations and cancellations for the Thames Valley District School Board and London District Catholic School Board.
CBC
29-01-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Unions say the province is shortchanging schools by millions, leaving students and classrooms in crisis
The public and Catholic school boards have been severely underfunded by the province, leading to violence in classrooms, children being short-changed when it comes to their education, and staff burnout, unions that represent education workers say. "It should be an election issue because it's provincial tax dollars that are funding the education system," said Mary Henry, the president of CUPE Local 4222, which represents secretaries, custodians, and early childhood educators with the Thames Valley District School Board. "People need to start asking about where our dollars are going because it's not being provided to the area that will determine our future, and that's education." The union that represents 12,000 workers in Ontario will release the preliminary results of a survey that points to a crisis in schools they say cannot be fixed without more funding on Wednesday. "A severe crisis in underfunding has led to extreme understaffing, students needs going unmet, and increased violence in the Thames Valley District and London District Catholic school boards," officials with the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (CUPE-OBSCU) wrote in a statement. Ontario school boards are funded on a per-pupil basis, meaning they get money for each student enrolled. But while per-pupil funding has gone up, it hasn't increased on par with inflation, the unions said. Real per-pupil funding cut, unions say Locally, that's meant a funding cut of $94 million to real per-pupil funding at the Thames Valley District School Board and $31 million in real per-pupil funding at the London District Catholic School Board, the group said. "It affects us on all levels," added Henry, whose local union is part of the umbrella group. "Our tools and resources are decreased, and that affects our ability to do our jobs. There's pressure because of the lack of resources, and it's putting a huge strain on the membership." The survey found that more than half of custodians and cleaners are asked to work with inadequate supplies, including running out of things or having to work with worn-out brooms and mops. Since 2011-2012, the per-pupil funding has decreased by $1,114 per student, CUPE-OSBCU says, adding that in 2011-2012, the province spent 19 per cent of total government revenue on education, but this year, that number is 14 per cent of total government revenue. The survey of secretaries, maintenance workers, custodians, educational assistants, library workers and others represented by CUPE found: 83 per cent said they felt stress due to excessive workload, and just over half said they took time off work due to stress and burnout. 61 per cent said their work area is sometimes evacuated because of violent or disruptive behaviour, and 10 per cent said that it happened every day 97 per cent of educational assistants and child and youth workers said they experienced violent or disruptive behaviour. 92 per cent of registered early childhood educators said there are students in their classes with special needs, but 65 per cent said that those kids don't have an EA assigned to them. "I feel like students are getting the bare minimum of service. The service is often reacting to what needs to be done and not anything additional or extra," one secretary from the London District Catholic School Board told survey takers. He or she is not identified by name or school in the survey documents. "The needs haven't changed, but the resources have gone way down. We're stretched so thin," said Ryan Nagy, an educational assistant at a public high school in London. "In the past, we would have a lot more support for the kids, more one-on-one support, more life-skills learning. Now, students that would get that kind of support aren't getting them." Kids who don't get the support they need disrupt the classroom and make it more difficult to teach and learn, Nagy added. "When their individual needs aren't met, we see behaviour, we see violence, we see evacuations of classrooms, all because of chaos and over-stimulation." Education has to be a provincial election issue, Nagy said. "When you're trying to put out fires, learning gets put on the back burner." Officials with the London District Catholic School Board did not have anyone available to comment for this article. The Thames Valley District School Board sent a statement that said it is committed to a safe, inclusive and supportive environment. When asked about the union's claims, Education Minister Jill Dunlop disputed the lack of funding and said school boards need to ensure they are using their funding for the classrooms. "No other government has invested more in education. Since 2018, our government has increased public education funding to historic levels including on student mental health and safety, special education and supporting the hiring of over 9,000 education staff to support student achievement," she said. " Yesterday I announced $1.3 billion in new funding to build more schools across the province including six new schools in the Thames Valley District School Board and London Catholic School Board. We have and will continue to increase funding in education every single year of our mandate to support students and teachers, but school boards need to act as responsible stewards of public dollars, balance their budgets and ensure money meant for the classroom, get to the classroom."
