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The Toronto District School Board is ending outdoor education programs at five centres that it says require tens of millions of dollars in maintenance and repairs.
In a statement Thursday, the TDSB said it has made the “difficult decision” to close the outdoor education centre at Warren Park, end the leases at the Forest Valley and Etobicoke locations and end programming at two in-school sites, the Toronto Urban Studies Centre and Island Natural Science School.
“We continue to recognize the importance of outdoor education and will be able work with a variety of external sites to offer opportunities to our students should demand exceed our remaining centres,” TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said in the statement.
Bird said the outdoor education centres at Mono Cliffs and Hillside will remain open.
Lauren Socha, a parent whose son attends the daycare at the Island Natural Science School, said the news is unfortunate.
“I think that’s really, really disappointing,” she said. “It’s such a unique opportunity for kids, especially city kids that don’t necessarily have access all the time for this sort of thing. It’s really a loss for all those families that will be coming through the system in the future.”
The TDSB will close the outdoor education centre at Warren Park, end the leases at the Forest Valley and Etobicoke locations and end programming at two in-school sites, the Toronto Urban Studies Centre and Island Natural Science School. (Tina Mackenzie/CBC)Cuts to affect low-income students, expert says
An education expert and political leaders were quick to condemn the cuts, saying shutting down the programs will affect low-income and marginalized students in particular.
Sachin Maharaj, an assistant professor of educational leadership, policy and program evaluation at the University of Ottawa, said the centres provide students opportunities to learn things “that can’t really be effectively learned just in a classroom.”
Maharaj said students from wealthier families often have opportunities to learn about the natural world through camps or the cottage.
“If you’re learning about science, about plants, biology, animals … you could learn about it from a textbook, but it’s not as valuable as if you actually do it out in nature,” he said.
“For a lot of low-income students, these programs were their only real exposure to learning in the natural environment.”
Maharaj said when he was a high school teacher at the TDSB, he took students on overnight trips to some of these centres. For some students, it was the first time they left the city.
A play structure in the shape of a school bus at the Forest Valley Outdoor Education Centre is shown here. (Tina Mackenzie /CBC)
Coun. Ausma Malik, who represents Spadina-Fort York, which includes the Toronto Islands, said outdoor education programs at the Island Natural Science School have provided children with a “unique learning experience” in one of the city’s largest parks and in an important cultural and ecological site.
“As a former school board trustee and now as the local councillor, I heard from families all over our downtown especially about the importance of this program and I am deeply concerned to see it slated for cuts,” Malik said in a statement.
The cuts come after the TDSB announced earlier this week that it will lay off 218 central administration staff people and eliminate an additional 91 vacant positions.
Programs help children to grow, Green Party says
Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, said Thursday the cuts mean fewer opportunities to learn about nature and the environment.
“Students in Toronto will miss out on important and impactful outdoor education opportunities — experiences that allow kids to connect with the natural world and apply the scientific concepts they’re learning in the classroom,” Schreiner said in the statement.
“Our kids deserve a government that puts their learning before massive mega projects and backroom deals. It’s time to make real investments in public education and stop cutting the programs our students need to learn and grow.”
The TDSB, the largest school board in Canada, remains under provincial supervision, along with seven other boards in the province.
The Doug Ford government introduced legislation last month to curtail the role of trustees sharply in bargaining and budgets. The government says the changes are intended to improve board governance, but critics have called it a concerning centralization of power.