The immediate Past Chair of the Avon Maitland District School Board has some concerns about the possibility of merging school boards in Ontario. The Ford government has floated the idea as one way to reduce costs.
Randy Wagler says one of his concerns is how geographically large some of the combined boards would be.
"How big a geography does that result in, and does that mean in so doing that you lose touch with some unique communities and people feel more disconnected. And I think the great thing about school boards is that there is that local connection. You never want to lose that, and that's a concern if you get bigger."
Wagler is also concerned about what services would be combined.
"In non-student related services, things like maybe human resources or maybe it's some of the finance, some of those kinds of things I think may make some sense to combine. But I would never want to see less money going to those who support the classroom because I think school boards are pretty efficient that way."
Wagler adds the more communities you include in one board, the more difficult it becomes to meet the unique needs of each of those communities.
Meanwhile, the President of the Ontario School Board Council of Union has lashed out at the Ford government.
Laura Walton says the reasoning behind the Ford government's rumoured plans to reduce the number of school boards across Ontario is based on a set of false assumptions and the move won't save money, but will weaken the province's education system.
Walton made her comments in response to a news report late Friday afternoon, which indicated the government was considering plans to merge school boards in Ontario's public system to streamline administration and cut board bureaucracy. The change is expected to take aim at school boards in smaller communities.
"There is nothing in our experience that suggests mergers will lead to cost savings in the long run," said Laura Walton, president of the OSBCU. "Public sector restructuring in other sectors has demonstrated that mergers can actually cost far more than they save. In fact, Ontario's Auditor General found that hospital restructuring under the Mike Harris government actually cost $3.2 billion."
CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions represents 55,000 education workers across Ontario.
