In an effort to understand issues from all sides, I reached out to Robert North from the school board. I had a lot of questions for him. It was surprising to see how many challenges the school board faces. He took notes, so he could answer them thoughtfully. Here's is his response.

Good afternoon Mr. Bortlisz:

Thanks for contacting me regarding the Simcoe County District School Board and the role of School Board Trustee along with my views on the desire for a high school in Wasaga Beach.

The Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) is one of almost 80 publicly funded boards / authorities in Ontario charged with delivery of education for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12. Ontario has five groupings of school boards consisting of English Language Public, English Language Catholic, French Language Public, French Language Catholic, and one board in Penetanguishene – the Penetanguishene Protestant Separate School Board. Each of these boards serves a defined geography and they can serve as few as four hundred or so students (Penetanguishene), up to 250 thousand (Toronto District School Board). Simcoe County is considered a medium sized board, with a student population of approximately 51,812 pupils, with 15,373 of those being secondary aged, and 36,439 being elementary. Our population is now on a very slight increase, after being somewhat in decline for several years. Much of this increase is due to growth in the south end of our County.

To serve these students and communities, we operate 87 elementary schools, 14 secondary schools, and 7 learning centres. We employ almost 6,000 people, most of them Simcoe County residents, in a wide variety of roles. Teachers, Custodians, Educational Assistants, Child and Youth Workers, Administrators, and various other specialty roles make up a diverse group of professionals.

With this human resource intensive and location intensive endeavor, comes a substantial cost. The SCDSB’s budget this year will top 587 million dollars for our operations. This amount does not include capital expenses of well over $100 million. About 1/3 of these funds come from local taxation, with the balance being funded by the Province. A very small amount comes from other sources such as federal grants, international students, tuition agreements, and so on.

The structure of school boards is fairly consistent across the province. Schools are generally grouped into areas which are overseen by superintendents. These superintendents in turn, report to a Director of Education, the Director is hired, given direction, and monitored by a board of Trustees. Unlike some municipalities, the board never gets into the operational end of the schools. We rely on democratic principles to give our Director guidance and direction to implement policies and so on. We decide on budgets and direct funds to areas that we feel are of importance to our students, families, and communities. And although we give direction on policy and funds, there is limited ability to move funds from one ‘envelope’ to another. For example, we cannot move classroom funds to transportation because we want to add bus routes, etc.

The SCDSB has a very long history of being fiscally prudent with the resources that we are entrusted with. We are legally required to balance our budget each year, and unlike a number of other boards in the province, have never had to be put under provincial jurisdiction where the Ministry takes over the board’s work. We’ve managed to underspend in areas such as administration, directing millions of dollars back into various programs and services. We also have an impressive history of attracting capital investments from the Ministry. Over the last ten years or so, we have attracted over $80 million for new schools, renovations, and so on. We know what the capital branch looks for in a solid business case and have used this knowledge and prudent planning to secure substantial investments in schools throughout Simcoe County over the past decade. As you know, last year the Ministry approved our capital request for a new elementary school in Wasaga Beach. This 10-million-dollar investment will serve the students and families of Wasaga for decades to come. It should also help to attract families going forward which in turn, helps the case for a secondary school down the road.

The SCDSB is considered a leader in First Nations, Metis, and Inuit education and we are frequently contacted for expertise in this area. We have also made recent investments in ensuring equity and inclusion in our board. A number of our senior staff have been seconded to the Ministry over the years to build leadership capacity and offer support to the province. I feel that we are a very successful board.

That being said, there are many challenges that face us. We, like many boards are struggling with some student math results. Increasing demands on special education will require careful decisions on how to best maximize these resources to benefit the largest number of students. Cost pressures with transportation have been an issue and will likely be more of an issue going forward due to a badly outdated funding model. Our County is one not only diverse in its physical geography, but its social geography as well. We teach kids whose needs are being easily met at home, and kids whose family’s don’t know where their next meal is coming from. It’s easy to fundraise for sports uniforms in areas that have a very high income, and it’s heartbreaking to fundraise for school breakfast programs in area’s that are economically depressed. Our school councils do a great job of supporting our students and schools but there has to be a realization that schools are providing more these days to kids than they ever have in the past as far as non-school related supports go.

School Board Trustees develop policy, approve / amend budgets, and monitor the performance of the corporate board, and the Director. Through these mechanisms and the mechanisms put forth by the Ministry of Education, we celebrate our successes, and do our best to address the challenges. We connect with students, staff, parents, and communities and advocate for a better system to try to give all of our students increased opportunities.

I am aware that there are currently four candidates running for Trustee for the school board electoral district of Wasaga Beach / Collingwood. I congratulate each of them for putting their name forward. I know as someone who has served for more than a decade in the role that elections can be engaging and an opportunity to meet a lot of great people. But I also know that elections can be a time where people try to tear you down, reinterpret what you’ve said and done, and other challenges.

I hope that the residents of Wasaga Beach and Collingwood ask a lot of questions of all their candidates and keep a few things in mind as election day draws nearer.

I’d ask if the candidates have experience serving on any boards or committees that are constrained by rules of order, parliamentary processes, etc. It’s easy to suggest that a board simply do this or that, but in the end, you have to make decisions based on the rules. Along with this, are they aware of how funds are enveloped and restricted? Do they know where the tax dollars come from for all the services that the board delivers?

I’d ask what experience they have in debate. As a member of a twelve person board, you need some good debating skills and the ability to bring people along to your way of thinking in a respectful but convincing manner. They need to be respectful of decisions made by the board, and be able to explain the rationale for these decisions, while reserving the right to explain why they opposed the decision in a respectful manner.

What are their goals in joining the board are. If they only have one goal, it’s going to be a long, boring, and likely unsuccessful four years. Hopefully the answers include a number of items, along with a desire to learn and become informed and engaged on a variety of topics. One trick ponies seldom do well in any elected position.

I’d ask about time commitments. The past term has seen some Trustees with great attendance records, and some with – there’s no other word for it – atrocious attendance records. You can’t help the table make decisions if you aren’t at the table. And the meetings, contrary to what some have believed going into the role, can be substantial. There are more than a dozen committees of the board. The minimum would be four meetings a month. In my time, I’ve had as many as twelve or thirteen in a month, depending on what is going on in education at the time.

Ask if they love reading. They better love reading because he agendas and reports can run from a dozen pages, to hundreds for each meeting. If you don’t read the packages and research the implications their voice can be seldom heard. They need to speak out, ask questions, and ensure that the corporate board is making good decisions.

And ask if they can live with losing on some issues. I have disagreed with every fellow trustee around the table at one point or another. I’ve been with the majority and won votes, and I’ve ben soundly defeated on others. You take issues up one at a time and you will never get everything that you want. It’s not a role for those with thin skin.

Ask how many board meetings or events that they’ve been to. In an ideal world, if they want the role, they have hopefully come out to a few meetings to get a flavor of what they are committing to. I know that at least one of the candidates in Wasaga Beach has, and I was glad to see her at a recent trustee information meeting.

Whomever the successful candidate is, I wish them well. It’s a challenging, but very rewarding position.

So onto a little bit about residents’ desire for a high school in Wasaga Beach.

Let me begin by prefacing my comments by saying that this is what I envision. It has not been formally considered by the board or our staff. I also want to reiterate that the planning and funding process does not allow, under any circumstances, the inclusion of Simcoe Muskoka Catholic students, students from either of the French language boards, home schooled, or any other students that the HSTF attempts to put forward. It is simply not done – anywhere. Initially the number thrown around was about 800 students. These numbers are erroneous and are closer to 550.

As I’ve mentioned to many people in Wasaga and beyond over the past year or so, the challenge with getting a secondary school for Wasaga lies mainly in the fact that the MOE will not fund a new school where there is existing capacity in a nearby school. With CCI being anywhere from about 10 to 20 km away from many parts of Wasaga, it certainly qualifies as a nearby school. With CCI’s ability to take on the secondary student population from Wasaga Beach, a school for Wasaga is difficult. That being said – I believe there is a way forward.

CCI was built in 1953 and is not in the best of shape from a facility index point of view. To make it ‘as new’ it would require a minimum of twelve million dollars in repairs, upgrades and so on. It is the second oldest secondary building in our stock and has reached a ‘critical’ rating on our Facility Condition Index. It is time to put some serious money into CCI for both current and future students.

Wasaga is a growing community, but as you know, the population demographics tend to be on the older end of the spectrum. That being said, there is some growth in the elementary age population, which hopefully will be further assisted by the addition of the new elementary school. There is also some growth in the secondary population, but it lags behind the older demographic. People will sometimes quote new students entering a stream but often fail to remember that a larger number are graduating and moving out of the K-12 education system. Another caution when people talk about growth is that they automatically equate new builds with children. Sometimes these builds result in students, and sometimes they do not. Canadians are having fewer and fewer children overall and this results in challenges for many social service infrastructures, including education. The type of buildings also tend to produce varying numbers of students. Townhomes and semis tend to produce elementary kids. Single detached tend to produce secondary students. And condo tend to produce very few students if at all.

My vision would entail making strategic changes to CCI while making the required investments to improve the condition of the facility. Contrary to the ‘super-school’ comments that some have made, I would hope to actually reduce the capacity of the school while making the long-term investment in this school. CCI currently has an OTG capacity of 1281 students. It is projected to house upwards of 1456 student by the year 2023, leading to an overcapacity of about 15%.

But what if when renovated, we saved some money by reducing the capacity to perhaps 900 students? This number works for programming (via availability of courses), makes the school a bit more tight-knit, and could be seen as a more efficient building.

If the CCI capacity is reduced to 900, you need spaces for about 500 students, most of whom could be Wasaga kids. And if you add in about 100 students from WB that attend other schools (Elmvale, etc.), you now have a population of about 600 students that need a facility. If you add a few more from the growth over the 2018-2023 period that some keep talking about, you are now in the ballpark for a viable capital case to the Ministry of Education.

Regardless of where I represent, whether it be WB as current or elsewhere, this is a vision that I’d like to see unfold. This solves both the issue of CCI becoming prohibitive to repair and give WB a fair shot at getting a secondary school.  

I certainly hope that this is something that your future trustee will support. To pursue a secondary school without addressing CCI is not in my opinion and based on my experience with the board since 2003, something that is not at all feasible. So long as there is capacity in CCI, getting a secondary school for WB will be incredibly challenging at best.

I know that Jim Wilson, at least from a political point of view would like to see a secondary school in Wasaga, but the powers that be cannot possibly build a 500 student school where capacity exists nearby, without going to many other municipalities in Ontario and offering them the same. A province of schools running at 65% capacity is unthinkable from a financial point of view, both at the school board level, and the provincial level. I know that both the Liberal candidate and the NDP candidate also indicated their support for a secondary school as well during the most recent provincial election. Pretty much everyone wants a secondary school for Wasaga Beach. I believe as your current local representative that this is how we do it.

I hope that this long-winded response is useful. I remain available to yourself, or any other WB resident or candidate at any time to elaborate on this, or any other school board issue. I look forward to speaking with you again soon.