At least one Toronto District School Board trustee took issue with the board's announcement that an extension had been granted to the safety advisory panel in charge of examining school safety and security.The School Community Safety Advisory Panel was formed to investigate safety conditions at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute following the May 23 murder of student Jordan Manners. An interim report containing some of the panel's findings was released in late August. Full findings were initially expected on July 16, though that was later amended to Sept. 30 following some of the panel's findings.
On Wednesday, the school board debated giving the panel an extension until Dec. 15, along with $350,000 in additional funding to be culled from the Focus on Youth Toronto grant procured from the Ministry of Education. The increase in funding would bring the panel's cost to $839,136.
Trustees voted in favor of the extension and sent out a press release later that day announcing the deadline extension.
Ward 11 (St. Paul's) Trustee Josh Matlow, however, said the timing of the release made it misleading at best and dishonest at worst.
"To commit more money and give the panel an extension would require the approval of the minister of education," he said. "That was discussed (Wednesday), but the press release didn't mention that. It's misleading, given what came out of the meeting."
Matlow said he felt the panel was a smokescreen from the beginning, giving the impression that something was being done to combat problems at C.W. Jefferys and other schools while diverting attention away from the board. On Sept. 11 of this year, 16-year-old Dineshkumar Murugiah was stabbed to death in a laneway just outside Winston Churchill Collegiate in Scarborough.
"There was never any acknowledgement that there were things that we could be doing better," Matlow said. "Never was it acknowledged that for months, people at the board may have been aware of problems at the school who did nothing about them."
The trustee added that even if the panel recommends definite steps to help solve issues in the schools, the board's $7-million budget deficit would make it difficult to put a plan into action.
"It's disingenuous to suggest to the public that we can necessarily even implement whatever recommendations come out of the panel," he said.
Matlow called on the board, asking them to put out a new press release with corrections and an apology for what he said was "utterly misleading" and "pure spin."
Ward 15 (Toronto-Danforth) Trustee Cathy Dandy, who chairs the board-operated School Community Safety Workgroup, acknowledged that ministry approval was required if the school board hoped to divert more funds to the panel. She said, however, she did not feel the wording in the press release was misleading.
"The (Focus on Youth) money was given to us at the beginning of summer to keep schools open and hold free programs in those spaces," she said. "The people organizing the programming managed to do it very efficiently, so rather than returning it to the board, we're asking to put it toward the panel. I expect that that shouldn't be a problem."
Dandy said the panel has been extremely valuable in examining current and best possible practices to ensure safety at all possible board schools, focusing on such factors as resources and staffing levels. She said the extension will provide definite long-term benefits for students and staff.
"Our administration budget had been shredded over the course of years, so (the possible panel extension) will let us continue to document some of the issues and practices we have not been able to do ourselves," she said. "This isn't supposed to be some fly-by-night thing."
Dandy added she was not sure when the ministry of education would make its decision on the board's request to use leftover Focus on Youth funds on the panel's investigation.
For more information on the panel's findings thus far, visit www.schoolsafetypanel.com.