February 2014
Local VIP: Trustee Mari Rutka
Mari Rutka has what appears to be an impossible task.
As Trustee for Ward 12 in Willowdale which includes the Yonge North Corridor, Mari is one of 22 public school trustees elected during municipal elections. Her official job is to represent public school supporters in the City of Toronto. Trustees regularly meet several times a month, as a Board and in organized standing committees, collectively making decisions about schools.
Schools are an essential part of a livable community. Without local schools it is impractical for young families to locate to the area. And a community that lacks families with children is not a viable and thriving community where people want to reside for the majority of their lives. A shortage of schools in the Yonge
North Corridor is now so acute that signs have been posted informing prospective residents that schools are filled.
Mari has served as Trustee for the Yonge North Corridor since 2003 and has been working to help resolve this problem.
Mari’s ongoing challenge is to convince the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to build more schools in the Yonge North Corridor. Despite a recognized need for these schools, building has been slow to take place. Because funding for new schools has not been available for over a decade, a majority of trustees need to agree to close schools and sell land in other areas of the city before new schools can be built. Mari is fighting a system that encourages contraction of the school system while her community continues to grow.
The problem began in 1998. Prior to 1998 there were six school boards in Metropolitan Toronto. Each school board had local control. The school board determined staffing, policies and other costs to maintain the local school system. Local school boards were also able to determine the local tax amount to cover these costs.
Beginning in 1998 a series of events occurred that has resulted in the Yonge North Corridor being placed in what is now an unworkable situation. In 1998 the six cities that comprised Metropolitan Toronto amalgamated. The TDSB was created to replace the six local school boards. It became and continues to be the largest school board in Canada and among the largest in North America. Integration meant that six different school boards had to consolidate their operations. This became a nearly ten year process during which no new schools were built.
This was also when the Yonge North Corridor began its period of hyper growth.
The province became responsible for funding of schools during this same period. Prior to 1998 each school board could use their tax base and also charge development levies to cover the cost of building and maintaining schools. Since this time the TDSB has retained responsibility over expenditures but no control over revenues. Revenues are now collected centrally by the provincial government and allocated to all 72 school boards in the province according to a provincially determined formula. This formula excludes funding for new space unless all other schools in the board are full. According to government requirements, excess capacity in areas such as Scarborough or Etobicoke must be eliminated and the land sold before new schools can be built in the high growth Yonge North Corridor.
As the Yonge North Corridor has grown over the past 15 years, Mari has been on the front lines of helping to build a livable community. Without schools, the Yonge North Corridor will not attract the families that are necessary to the development of a livable, viable and stable community.
As a community we need to support adults, both married and single, along with children and seniors. Without this diversity the Yonge North Corridor will not remain a safe, popular and dynamic community. Yet our policies and approach to growth discourage families from locating to the area. While some claim the same problem exists with other infrastructure such as transit, parks and roads, the school problem has existed for 15 years without resolution.
Mari describes “a system designed for a flat city while the Yonge North Corridor has developed into a vertical community”. Her singular challenge through three terms as Trustee has been to represent the current school system through an institution that has been frustrated in its ability to service its current resident population. With hyper growth continuing in the area, new residents will continue to place unmanageable demands on an infrastructure incapable of supporting current or new residents.
The Situation Today
The lack of schools in the Yonge North Corridor is the result of local population growth due to condominiums in an area not adequately prepared for this growth.
There have been small victories. Earl Haig Secondary School and Churchill Public School have received funding for expansion. Sites have been retained at the former Burnett, Silverview and Edithvale Public Schools to support anticipated future needs. The government has given approval for a new and larger elementary school in the Avondale community but has not yet provided funding for this project.
It is only in the past five years that the sale of TDSB properties have begun to secure funds for new school construction. The TDSB now has a process in place for identifying schools that can be closed and that can be sold. Schools recommended for closure are not in areas expected to be needed in the future. The process is slow. Requiring about two years to complete, the process requires considerable community consultation and staff resources.
The reality is that the Yonge North Corridor needs schools now. Earl Haig Secondary School was designed to accommodate 1,800 students. Its current population is 2,300 and there are an additional 700 students unable to enroll. McKee Public School, the smallest of four public schools in the area, recently relocated 100 students to other schools due to a shortage of space.
Ontario in 2014 operates under a system designed for a flat city that may make sense for most of the province. The Yonge North Corridor in 2014 is a vertical community for which the current system is seen by some as dysfunctional. Various bodies make decisions in isolation without consideration for the community;
- The provincial funding formula for schools means the Yonge North Corridor has not had a new school built despite a massive population increase over a 15 year period.
- The Condo Act supports continued growth and is adapting to better structure itself to this reality but is silent about the community beyond the walls of each condominium.
- The Ontario Municipal Board, an institution more than 100 years old, is structured in a way conducive to developers. These developers have little or no concern for livability or community concerns such as schools, parks and traffic.
- The Landlord & Tenant Board, and the Residential Tenancies Act, conflict with the Condo Act when it comes to dealing with rentals within a condominium corporation.
Mari is on the front lines of this conflict. She must deal with people who require services today while working within an antiquated system that is not prepared for the reality of today’s Yonge North Corridor.
