Foolish to cancel program aimed to help disengaged students before problems spiralled out of control

By Moira MacDonald, The Toronto Sun

Just over two years ago I wrote about a pilot program to help high school students on short-term suspensions get back on track so they didn’t end up in worse trouble down the road.

The targets for the Stop Gap program at Northern Secondary School were not violent students. They were the kids identified in the much-publicized, $800,000-plus Falconer school safety report — the classic “hall wanderers” — disengaged, skipping class and disrupting others.

They were students on three to five-day suspensions — the most common form of suspension at the Toronto District School Board.

These were the kids people were trying to get to before their problems spiralled into more destructive behaviour — and more expensive interventions.

I write “were” because last April Stop Gap was stopped, period.

When trustee Josh Matlow criticized director Chris Spence’s plan to spend $345,000 on a one-day teaching conference at last month’s board meeting, Matlow asked how he could explain the cancellation of a program for at-risk students due to funding problems when the board was prepared to spend exponentially more on a conference.

by Sharon Lem, The Toronto Sun

The improved academic achievements of seven Toronto schools located in poor neighbourhoods is being credited to a $25-million Toronto District School Board initiative over the past three years.

Under the TDSB’s Model Schools for Inner Cities initiative, inner-city schools were given the tools, resources and opportunities to support students who face socioeconomic challenges that get in the way of learning.

All but one of the seven schools under the initiative exceeded national academic standards, while the seventh school reached the national academic standards, the TDSB said Monday.

“These model schools are doing exceptionally well from five years ago,” Trustee Sheila Cary-Meagher said. “This is what we were hoping for to happen. We actually made a difference.”

But Trustee Josh Matlow says the $25 million could have been better spent.

“The results for kids is always good news, but the TDSB has a mandate to provide equity to all children across Toronto and spending millions on only a handful of schools when other schools are losing programs and staff every year is unequitable,” Matlow said.

“We’re facing a $17-million deficit this year and the model school program does not have a sustainable source of funding. They’re taking millions of dollars from Ontario grants which should be equally dispersed across the city.

“We have kids living in poverty in schools all across Toronto and we need to support kids no matter where they’re going to school.”

Matlow accused proponents of the initiative of creating “a public relations campaign” to drum up support for the program before the budget process is completed.

“I’d appreciate a democratic discussion, rather than another sales pitch,” Matlow said.

Model schools include: Firgrove, Nelson Mandela Park PS, Willow Park, Forest Manor, George Webster, Kingsview Village Jr., and Bala Avenue Community School.

The program includes 102 cluster schools which were mentored by the same teaching tactics the seven model schools used.

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by Moira MacDonald, The Toronto Sun

For as long as I can remember covering the education beat there have been calls for an ombudsman to keep an eye on schools.

The idea has gone nowhere.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin has been clear he sees his role as the public’s watchdog on government, pushing it, shaming it if necessary, to follow the rules and standards it has set for itself and to be accountable for the delivery of taxpayer-funded services.

But not everything is covered. Ontario’s education ministry falls under Marin’s mandate. But where the rubber really hits the road in the school system — schools and the boards that run them — is off-limits to him. Marin can’t touch them — unless they get taken over provincially, like the Toronto Catholic school board.

Toronto District School Board trustee Josh Matlow has stood up on his soapbox occasionally over the last year to call for Marin’s powers to be extended — and to condemn what Matlow says is a proposal by new board director Chris Spence to create a board ombudsman that would report to Spence.

More substantial is a recommendation expected to come to TDSB trustees in March from its special education advisory committee, initiated by a parent who sits on it. It calls for the board to set up an ombudsman who would be “fully independent, impartial” and “confidential,” in helping parents, staff, students and community members resolve conflicts and complaints with the board.

Christina Buczek, a mother of two special needs students in the TDSB who initiated the motions, says she started out proposing an ombudsman for cases involving special needs students, but was persuaded to extend her motion to include all board programs.

‘Squeaky wheel’

“There’s no accountability,” Buczek told me. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease ... but it shouldn’t be that way — there should be a process open for all people.”

Buczek, a one-time trustee candidate and former chair of the committee, has had her own tussles as she advocated for services for her children over the years.

Her story is one I have heard repeatedly from special needs parents, including the time she says she was banned from her daughter’s school over a misheard conversation, under a terrible piece of education legislation allowing anyone, including parents, to be issued a trespass notice without due process or appeal. Buczek could not even escort her daughter to the school door.

If that’s not the sort of thing Marin could get his hands into, I don’t know what would be.

Predictably, things aren’t sounding good from the trustee side.

Trustees’ job

Trustee James Pasternak, vice-chair of the special education committee, doubts Buczek’s motion will pass next month. Trustees — already worried about becoming an endangered species — feel advocacy on behalf of constituents is their job and an ombudsman “could undermine our current policy of shared solutions.” Besides, Pasternak believes the ultimate problem in special education isn’t staff not following the rules, it’s — wait for it — underfunding.

“What we have in place is not perfect, but I think it’s pretty good,” Pasternak told me.

But not good enough. An ombudsman would be there to advocate in the most extreme cases and identify systemic problems — and by doing so, gradually cut down on the less severe cases through a message to the system that somebody with teeth is watching and it had better play by the rules.

But the best place for this isn’t the TDSB. It’s at the province. And if the McGuinty Liberals really want to make good on their promise to rebuild public confidence in the school system, they’ll install the full set of accountability checks and balances, including an ombudsman.

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by Kristin Rushowy, The Toronto Star

Trustee Josh Matlow won’t be censured for calling a $345,000 one-day conference planned by Toronto’s school board a “drunken spending binge.”

After an hour-long coffee on Thursday afternoon with Chair Bruce Davis, the two decided “that we are moving forward, and while we both recognize the need for respectful debate, we both recognize that we can’t allow anything to distract the board from its priorities,” Matlow said.

Matlow said he feels “very good that we were able to resolve this in a positive way.”

Davis had demanded a retraction and apology from Matlow for his comments, made to the Toronto Sun last week, by 4 p.m. Monday. When Matlow refused, Davis said he would request a censure, which is essentially a public chiding.

Davis told Matlow on Thursday he will withdraw that request.

Matlow had told the Sun last Wednesday that the cost of the one-day teacher professional development day was “insane.” The board had approved the new director’s $1.7 million “vision of hope” for the board’s future, which included $195,000 for delegates’ commemorative booklets.

“The TDSB has told parents they’re going to have to close schools and cut support staff and shut down youth-at-risk programs because they don’t have enough money. To turn around and go on a drunken spending binge is shameful,” Matlow told the Sun.

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by Kristin Rushowy, The Toronto Star

Toronto’s school board will simply recommend a censure for outspoken Trustee Josh Matlow after he stood his ground and refused to apologize for criticizing a decision to spend $345,000 on a one-day conference at the Air Canada Centre.

The end to the standoff came just after the 4 p.m. Monday deadline that board Chair Bruce Davis had set for Matlow to retract his statements and say he’s sorry.

In a blistering letter, Davis said the Sept. 1 professional development day for teachers “will be remarkable” and at $28 per delegate is “good value for the money.”

“When you are trying to lead institution change the way that we have asked (director) Chris Spence to bring about, we have to try new ways to doing things,” said Davis. “We will endeavour to look at the costs associated with that event, and will look at greener ways of doing the conference, but the conference will go proceed and I think it will be remarkable.”

In Davis’ 2 1/2 page letter, he is highly critical of Matlow, his voting on issues and said he “did not mean to create a frenzy over this matter, neither did I set out to create a martyr.”

“If Trustee Matlow doesn’t have the courtesy to apologize, if he doesn’t have the sense to see the damage that he has done to his colleagues and to the director and to the school board by suggesting that our spending is out of control, then no punishment, no censure, no admonishment, no banishment will ever change his mind.”

Matlow said he didn’t understand the motivation for the letter. “I’m very saddened that the chair would write a letter this intemperate about me,” he said.

Constitutional lawyers told the Star the board has no right to stop Matlow from speaking out.

“I think Matlow is doing exactly what we want school trustees to do,” said Ed Morgan, a law professor at the University of Toronto. “He’s speaking his mind and speaking in criticism of board decisions. That’s why we elect independent thinkers.”

Matlow told the Toronto Sun last Wednesday that the cost of the one-day teacher professional development day was “insane.” The board had approved Spence’s $1.7 million “vision of hope” for the board’s future, which included $195,000 for delegates’ commemorative booklets.

“The TDSB has told parents they’re going to have to close schools and cut support staff and shut down youth-at-risk programs because they don’t have enough money. To turn around and go on a drunken spending binge is shameful,” Matlow told the Sun.

Davis refers to Bill 177, that states trustees must “uphold the implementation of any board resolution after it is passed by the board.” However, a ministry spokesperson said that does not prevent trustees from criticizing board decisions, only from impeding their implementation.

The board’s own code of conduct says trustees must abide by “ majority decision of the board while maintaining their right to state their personal opinions” and “(express) any differing opinion in a respectful and honest manner without making disparaging remarks or references about other board members.”

Trustees can be censured – essentially a public disapproval of their actions—or barred from meetings for violating the code.

Matlow said he criticized the board as a whole, not one particular person, and stands by what he said.

“In fact, during the budget process I’m going to ask for this to be reconsidered,” he said.

This is the first time the board has challenged a trustee under Bill 177.

Matlow has not been censured by the board, although at least one previous attempt to do so has been made.

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Apology demanded over 'spending binge' comments

By BRETT CLARKSON, Toronto Sun

Ain’t nobody gonna make Josh Matlow apologize.

“I’m accountable to the parents and residents I serve, not the TDSB,” said Matlow, the outspoken Toronto District School Board trustee.

Matlow was referring to board chairman Bruce Davis’ call for him to apologize over comments he made to the Toronto Sun last week about the trustees’ “drunken spending binge.”

Matlow was explaining why he couldn’t support the $1.7-million budget for the new director of education’s Vision of Hope budget, which allocated $345,000 for a one-day staffers and teachers conference at the Air Canada Centre.

by Raveena Aulakh, The Toronto Star

He's outspoken, is often quoted and is now involved in a public verbal duel.

Toronto District School Board trustee Josh Matlow is refusing to apologize for his scathing and public criticism of a board decision to spend $345,000 for a one-day conference at the Air Canada Centre.

by Sharon Lem and Don Peat, Toronto Sun

Reading, writing and rolling in dough?

Trustees for the cash-strapped Toronto District School Board are opening the taxpayer-funded wallet to create four new senior positions and giving their education director $1.7 million to build his “Vision of Hope.”

A memo that went to staff Tuesday announced the creation of the four new leadership positions - deputy director of operations, deputy director of academics, chief technology officer and chief facilities officer.

Advertisements for the jobs are expected to run in national newspapers this week.

The memo also announced three senior staffers were getting new titles. According to the Ministry of Finance’s salary disclosure list, the three staffers made a combined total of more than $450,000 last year before the shuffle.

TDSB spokesman Kelly Baker said the four new positions are more of a realignment of the board’s senior management.

“They’re not technically new positions,” Baker said.

She said the salaries for the positions have not been set but will come out of the existing staffing budget.

At Wednesday night’s board meeting, trustees approved six-figure funding for Education Director Chris Spence’s vision that includes a one-day teachers’ conference at the Air Canada Centre for $345,000 — $195,000 of that for delegates’ commemorative booklets.

“That’s insane!” Trustee Josh Matlow said Thursday. “The TDSB has told parents they’re going to have to close schools and cut support staff and shut down youth-at-risk programs because they don’t have enough money.

“To turn around and go on a drunken spending binge is shameful.”

Spence unveiled the “Vision of Hope” last year.

It’s a three-year-plan for the TDSB that focuses on student achievement, parent and community engagement and financial stability. It includes the creation of an all-boys school, a parent academy and hiring a marketing director to push up enrolment.

Don Valley East Trustee Michael Coteau said he supported giving Spence the cash for his vision, although he didn’t necessarily agree with every single piece or strategy of it.

“I have confidence in the director of education,” Coteau said. “He has been hired to do a job and I support him.”

But Coteau said Spence’s costly strategy ultimately will be measured to ensure the board gets its money’s worth.

“He is the one who is going to be accountable,” he said.

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by Louise Brown, The Toronto Star

The Toronto District School Board has earmarked $345,000 for a one-day teacher conference this fall at the Air Canada Centre, aimed at "jump-starting change in our schools," said chair Bruce Davis.

The controversial event passed as part of a sweeping $1.7 million package of initiatives from director of education Chris Spence, and would provide an "amazing way to move the agenda of change forward," said Davis during a lengthy heated debate Wednesday night.

The professional development event slated for Sept. 1 would bring together all the board's teachers for the first time in nearly a decade to hear speakers from around the world on how to make schools more effective. The biggest chunk of the cost is a hefty $195,000 to print a binder with speeches and resources for each delegate.

However, trustees stopped short of approving Spence's choice of U.S.-based event organizer Solution Tree, until they can pinpoint whether its fees would exceed the $50,000 mark above which bids from other firms must be entertained.

Trustee Josh Matlow slammed the idea of spending so much money on any conference "when we're facing a $17 million deficit," while trustee Sheila Ward called it a pricey "feel-good day." Trustee John Hastings opposed hiring an American consultant, given the United States' new "buy-American" policy.

However, trustee Howard Goodman described the idea as having "the potential to be a spectacular idea that generates a single message and ensures everyone of our staff is aligned in the same direction."

One way to trim costs, suggested trustee Michael Coteau, might be to put the speeches on a digital stick, rather than costly binders.

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