HomeMy WebLinkAbout12 Notice of Motion Trustee Libbey re Letter to Premier, Funding Formula•
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OTTAWA - CARLETON
DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
TO: Chair and Members DATE: 10 April 2006
of the Board
RE: Letter to Premier. Funding Formula
Trustee Libbey has given notice that he will move as follows at the 10 April 2006 Board Meeting:
WHEREAS the government has yet to deal with the fundamental flaws in the funding formula
reported by Dr. Rozanski in 2002,
WHEREAS the most significant flaw in the funding formula, the under funding of salaries, has
once again been confirmed by the government's own investigator into financial management at
the Dufferin -Peel Catholic District School Board,
WHEREAS the Ottawa - Carleton District School Board has highlighted its concerns about
education funding in the OCDSB Position Paper on Education Finance (February 16, 2006),
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Chair immediately send an open letter to the
Premier of Ontario, with copies to the Minister of Education, the Minister of Finance, area
MPP's, Ontario School Boards, the Ontario Public School Boards' Association, People For
Education and the Ottawa - Carleton Assembly of School Councils.
Michele Giroux
Executive Officer (Administration)
Lorne M. Rachlis
Director of Education/Secretary of the Board
DRAFT OPEN LETTER
To: Premier Dalton McGuinty
From: Lynn Graham, Chair, OCDSB
Copies to: Minister of Education, MPPs, Media, Chairs and Directors of Ontario School
Boards, OPSBA, P4E, ...
Dear Mr. Premier:
The Trustees of the Ottawa - Carleton District School Board would like to congratulate the
Honourable Sandra Pupatello on her appointment as Minister of Education for the Province of
Ontario. We look forward to working with her.
We believe publicly funded education in Ontario is at a crossroads. Your government has made
significant new investments in important initiatives in publicly funded education that have and
will continue to improve the achievement levels of our students. Unfortunately you have not yet
addressed the fundamental problems in the funding formula that were reported by Dr. Mordachai
Rozanski in December 2002. The result is that school boards continue to rob Peter to pay Paul to
balance budgets in financial terms. But repairs and maintenance of our precious schools, school
budgets, transportation, administration, etc. are all underfunded because the funding formula is
inherently flawed.
For the purposes of this letter, we offer a simple example. The funding formula gives School
Boards an average of approximately $6,000 per teacher less than the Boards actually pay their
teachers under collective agreements. The result is a massive underfunding of teacher salaries
that each Board must make up by underfunding other budget areas such as repairs and
maintenance of schools. This is confirmed by your own investigator, William R. McLean, who
states in his April 3, 2006 report regarding the Dufferin -Peel Catholic District School Board that
the Board faces a fundng shortfall of some $24.2 million with respet to the cost of classroom
teachers!
Mr. Premier and Minister Pupatello, we are aware that, due to declining enrolment in the
Province and despite the increase in funding announced in the Budget Speech, there is still a
significant amount of funding in the education envelope to be allocated to School Boards for
2006 -2007. We implore you to use that funding to begin to correct the fundamental problems
reported by Dr. Rozanski, starting with the "salary gap ". We further implore you to lay out a
plan to continue improving the funding formula to the point where it has full integrity in the
sense that the funding of public education fairly reflects its true costs.
We would be pleased to meet with you and / or minister Pupatello to discuss the funding formula
in depth.