Toronto school programs face cuts as school trustees continue to spend thousands

The trustees of Toronto's sprawling school system are looking for ways to slash costs to deal with a $30-million deficit, but apparently they're not looking under their noses.

The Globe and Mail reports Toronto District School Board trustees spend thousands of dollars on items like conference trips, postage for mail-outs and constituency assistants while contemplating cuts to school programs such as music.

The Globe looked at trustees' expenses between September and February listed on the board's web site.

Trustee Chris Tonks spent $7,603 on stamps for mailing out newsletters, while Sam Sotiropoulos, spent $4,030 on stamps. Shelley Laskin spent more than $2,000 on professional development and four other trustees spent more than $10,000 on constituency assistants, the Globe said.

[ Related: TDSB proposes cutting music programs to balance budget ]

The board, Canada's largest, responsible for more than 250,000 students, is scheduled to meet next month to decide on further measures to reduce its deficit. Earlier this year it cut some 250 teaching jobs. Eliminating music instructors is being considered this time.

The Toronto Star also reported Thursday that more than $100 million a year has been diverted from provincial funding programs to help underprivileged students so the board can balance its books, according to Social Planning Toronto.

Meanwhile, the board is preparing to open a second Africentric high school program next fall, even though the first such program attracted only six students, the National Post reported earlier this week.

Board chairman Chris Bolton said he'll raise the issue of trustees' expenses at the June meeting.

“We should be concerned that we’re spending our money well, that we’re getting good value for what it is we’re spending our money on,” Bolton told the Globe. “We need to remain vigilant.”

Bolton added he'll recommend that trustees' international travel for professional-development events should be approved by the board, not just the chairman.

The trustees fingered by the Globe defended their spending. Tonks said he mailed out the newsletter to parents in his ward because many don't have access to email or computers. Sotiropoulos said that as a new trustee, he did not have access to email addresses.

"I do have to build up a rapport with the public in the ward, and it’s very difficult to do so if you don’t at least send out some kind of mailing to the entire ward to get them interested in matters that relate to the schools,” he said.

But Sotiropoulos questioned Laskin's tab for professional development, the highest among the 22 trustees. It's reached $5,400 in all, including a conference in San Diego and a hotel bill while attending a Toronto event, even though she lives in the city.

“When I go to a conference, I am a full participant in the conference, that means the formal and the informal,” Laskin explained to the Globe, arguing the expenses were a legitimate part of fulfilling her role as a trustee.

[ Related: TDSB census highlights parent satisfaction ]

“I make a conscious decision and choose to spend a portion of my expenses to educate myself and to promote the excellence in the Toronto District School Board. Others choose to spend less on conferences and more on community mailings or constituency assistants. All are valid ... all are approved by the chair.”

Trustee Howard Goodman was among those who spent more than $10,000 on constituency assistants. He told the Globe using assistants is a more effective way of reaching out to parents and organizing community meetings than doing mail-outs.

“As a homeowner, when I get unsolicited mail, I don’t spend a lot of time looking at it,” Goodman said.