A group that represents public school boards in Ontario is calling on the province to put an end to its moratorium on school closures.
The call to lift the school closure moratorium is one of several recommendations being made by the Ontario Public School Board Association (OPSBA).
The group is also asking the Ministry of Education to complete its review of the Pupil Accommodation Review and to release a revised version by the end of the current school year.
“The moratorium has been in place since 2017,” said Cathy Abraham, president of the OPSBA. “We’ve been unable to make decisions about schools in our communities and in our boards since that time.”
The moratorium on Pupil Accommodation Reviews, which boards used to engage with the public whenever they were considering closing or consolidating schools, was put in place because boards needed better guidelines for consultations and needed to take the impact on the community, as well as student well-being, into account before closing a school’s doors.
“After nearly six years our students and their families shouldn’t have to wait any longer for their schools to be built, repaired, and renewed,” said Abraham.
(Interactive map courtesy of People for Education)
Discussions of closing a school can be controversial.
In some cases, smaller communities might lose their only school and students are then forced to take bus rides that are much longer to get to school.
However, keeping schools that are under-capacity open has also had a costly effect, according to Abraham.
“The current situation has created unsustainable funding deficits, as it costs the same to clean, heat, maintain, and keep the lights on in a school whether it is half empty or full,” said Abraham.
School boards get funding largely based on the number of students enrolled.
For example, a school in a rural community with fewer students will get less funding, which means less money to afford enough staff, and maintain or keep up with a school’s degrading infrastructure.
“The moratorium has become a challenge for us,” said Abraham. “It is time for us to be able to get on with our work and represent local communities the way that we are expected to be,” said Abraham.
However, the province said it’s not closing any schools.
“Our government is delivering $14 billion dollars to upgrade existing schools and build new state-of-the-art schools across Ontario,” said Grace Lee, the director of communications for Ontario’s Minister of Education.
According to Lee, the province has approved nearly 200 school construction projects and the development of more than 300 child care and education building-related projects since 2018.
“More than 100 are actively under construction,” said Lee.
