The suicide of school principal Richard Bilkszto has put Toronto’s District School Board’s woke policies in the spotlight..The TDSB has a long history of dysfunction and mismanagement..In 2013 a forensic audit by Ernst & Young discovered $1.29 million in raises had been given to senior managers even though the government had imposed a wage freeze..The Toronto Star reported union contracts were being abused as maintenance billed $143 for a pencil sharpener, $857 to hang three pictures on a wall, and 52 workers were fired for fraud..A couple of years later, the Liberal government took action and the education minister appointed Margaret Wilson to investigate..A ton of rot was unearthed from too many board members, to a $3 billion repair backlog and trustees' refusals to close low enrolment schools to make funds available for repairs and trustee turf wars taking place..According to Wilson, trustees received perks others in similar positions do not and often "trustees meddle in areas outside of their mandate and establish personal fiefdoms and sow fear among staff, school officials, principals, and vice principals.”.Wilson concluded: “The TDSB is so hopelessly dysfunctional that an honest conversation with the public about other ways of governing the province’s largest school board would be productive at this point.”.The school board’s headquarters is located not too far from the Queen’s Park legislature..One would think the education ministry would pay closer attention to an outfit with a $3.4 billion budget that controls 600 schools, responsible for a quarter million students and owns billions in real estate..Nope. The board behaves like an island unto itself, communicating with the province only to demand more money..To make matters worse, some school boards are so obsessed with personal identity they’re trying to gather as much data as they can on the identities of their students..The TDSB recently sent out a survey to its Grades 4 to 8 students that contains an inordinate number of questions about race, gender and sexual orientation..Among other things, the survey asks students whether they are bisexual, transgender, queer/gender expansive, intersex, asexual or pansexual. And whether or not they’ve learned in school about “binding, packing, tucking, or padding options.”.If young people are not bewildered by the cultural times we live in, by the time TDSB gets through with them they will become ever more traumatized. Remember, the students who received this survey aren’t even in high school.In pursuit of what the board calls “equitable access,” the TDSB also intends to eliminate auditions and skills-based criteria for its specialized programs in arts and athletics..They are to be replaced with a random selection process where “interest” is the only criterion. Before, students had to demonstrate aptitude in their chosen field. Now a lottery system will ensure everyone is treated 'equally.'.Academic excellence is being sacrificed at the altar of woke as Ontario students are falling behind with poor results achieved in province-wide assessments..Even reading scores are in decline. A report produced by the Ontario Human Rights Commission concluded that the province’s schools have replaced evidenced-based reading techniques such as phonics with yet-to-be-proven “whole language” methods that ask students to guess how words are pronounced instead of sounding them out..Schools are failing to provide students with the necessary skills needed to succeed in post-secondary education or for that matter in life. Parents of talented young people who can afford private school will escape the TDSB prison but talented kids whose parents have less affordability will get hurt the most..School principals earning over $100,000 are sent home and kept in administrative detention for months on end until alleged misconduct can be investigated..According to the Globe and Mail, the board placed 55 school principals on leave for an average of eight months during the past three years. Two principals were kept at home for two years..Meanwhile, the board had to scramble to hire more staff and even bring back retirees adding additional costs to a budget bursting at the seams. The issue confronting the TDSB is how to handle allegations of racism and bring out the truth openly and transparently instead it looks for scapegoats..School principal Alana Hardy was sent home after an unsigned racist letter was delivered to a member of the school staff and named several Black and racialized teachers. She was accused of anti-Black racism. The Globe and Mail examined a letter that the board investigated having “overwhelming evidence” of who the author is and that Ms. Hardy had no involvement or connection to the letter.”.The board instead threw her under the bus and described her alleged actions as "perpetuation of systemic racism.".The death of long-time school principal Richard Bilkszto and the humiliation he endured during a Diversity Equity and Inclusion training session should not surprise anyone who is up to speed on the board’s history..Bilkszto disagreed with the trainer, Kike Ojo Thompson who is also the founder of KOJO Institute, assessment that Canada is more racist than America..Bilkszto was a principal for 24 years, taught in Buffalo’s inner city schools, and was an advocate against intolerance and racism, stood up for himself and was crucified. Bilkszto was humiliated in front of 200 of his peers and TDSB management offered no support. One of his colleagues later went on to thank the facilitator for “modelling the discomfort.”.Anthony Furey who recently ran for mayor of Toronto got to know Richard as he helped him during his campaign.."We used to walk the streets together. People would stop and thank him for helping them with their education. Richard specialized in adult education and worked with people who had not completed high school or had been in trouble with the law. He helped a lot of disadvantaged students. He was a hero.” Furey went on to say that people should be "outraged at what has happened.".The Ford government has the opportunity to take the bull by the horns and do what other governments have failed to do and rein in the country's largest school board that has gone rogue..The board’s political culture is so entrenched that change from within might be impossible and must come from the province. The time is ripe for the province to appoint a supervisor to oversee its operations and make it accountable..Another idea is to split it up as it has become too big with too many moving parts. The trustee position needs to be examined as they are so closely aligned with local issues that they have become community activists, forgetting about the common good..Above all the ministry needs to review DEI training sessions and ensure they are open to respectful diverse discussions bringing people together, not dividing them and employees emerge more enlightened and not be made to feel that “whiteness” is solely responsible for society’s problems..Organizationally the TDSB needs to get out of the political arena and back on the road of pursuing academic excellence otherwise generations of young people from all walks of life will be lost to biased political indoctrination that sees life through the narrow lens of identity politics.
The suicide of school principal Richard Bilkszto has put Toronto’s District School Board’s woke policies in the spotlight..The TDSB has a long history of dysfunction and mismanagement..In 2013 a forensic audit by Ernst & Young discovered $1.29 million in raises had been given to senior managers even though the government had imposed a wage freeze..The Toronto Star reported union contracts were being abused as maintenance billed $143 for a pencil sharpener, $857 to hang three pictures on a wall, and 52 workers were fired for fraud..A couple of years later, the Liberal government took action and the education minister appointed Margaret Wilson to investigate..A ton of rot was unearthed from too many board members, to a $3 billion repair backlog and trustees' refusals to close low enrolment schools to make funds available for repairs and trustee turf wars taking place..According to Wilson, trustees received perks others in similar positions do not and often "trustees meddle in areas outside of their mandate and establish personal fiefdoms and sow fear among staff, school officials, principals, and vice principals.”.Wilson concluded: “The TDSB is so hopelessly dysfunctional that an honest conversation with the public about other ways of governing the province’s largest school board would be productive at this point.”.The school board’s headquarters is located not too far from the Queen’s Park legislature..One would think the education ministry would pay closer attention to an outfit with a $3.4 billion budget that controls 600 schools, responsible for a quarter million students and owns billions in real estate..Nope. The board behaves like an island unto itself, communicating with the province only to demand more money..To make matters worse, some school boards are so obsessed with personal identity they’re trying to gather as much data as they can on the identities of their students..The TDSB recently sent out a survey to its Grades 4 to 8 students that contains an inordinate number of questions about race, gender and sexual orientation..Among other things, the survey asks students whether they are bisexual, transgender, queer/gender expansive, intersex, asexual or pansexual. And whether or not they’ve learned in school about “binding, packing, tucking, or padding options.”.If young people are not bewildered by the cultural times we live in, by the time TDSB gets through with them they will become ever more traumatized. Remember, the students who received this survey aren’t even in high school.In pursuit of what the board calls “equitable access,” the TDSB also intends to eliminate auditions and skills-based criteria for its specialized programs in arts and athletics..They are to be replaced with a random selection process where “interest” is the only criterion. Before, students had to demonstrate aptitude in their chosen field. Now a lottery system will ensure everyone is treated 'equally.'.Academic excellence is being sacrificed at the altar of woke as Ontario students are falling behind with poor results achieved in province-wide assessments..Even reading scores are in decline. A report produced by the Ontario Human Rights Commission concluded that the province’s schools have replaced evidenced-based reading techniques such as phonics with yet-to-be-proven “whole language” methods that ask students to guess how words are pronounced instead of sounding them out..Schools are failing to provide students with the necessary skills needed to succeed in post-secondary education or for that matter in life. Parents of talented young people who can afford private school will escape the TDSB prison but talented kids whose parents have less affordability will get hurt the most..School principals earning over $100,000 are sent home and kept in administrative detention for months on end until alleged misconduct can be investigated..According to the Globe and Mail, the board placed 55 school principals on leave for an average of eight months during the past three years. Two principals were kept at home for two years..Meanwhile, the board had to scramble to hire more staff and even bring back retirees adding additional costs to a budget bursting at the seams. The issue confronting the TDSB is how to handle allegations of racism and bring out the truth openly and transparently instead it looks for scapegoats..School principal Alana Hardy was sent home after an unsigned racist letter was delivered to a member of the school staff and named several Black and racialized teachers. She was accused of anti-Black racism. The Globe and Mail examined a letter that the board investigated having “overwhelming evidence” of who the author is and that Ms. Hardy had no involvement or connection to the letter.”.The board instead threw her under the bus and described her alleged actions as "perpetuation of systemic racism.".The death of long-time school principal Richard Bilkszto and the humiliation he endured during a Diversity Equity and Inclusion training session should not surprise anyone who is up to speed on the board’s history..Bilkszto disagreed with the trainer, Kike Ojo Thompson who is also the founder of KOJO Institute, assessment that Canada is more racist than America..Bilkszto was a principal for 24 years, taught in Buffalo’s inner city schools, and was an advocate against intolerance and racism, stood up for himself and was crucified. Bilkszto was humiliated in front of 200 of his peers and TDSB management offered no support. One of his colleagues later went on to thank the facilitator for “modelling the discomfort.”.Anthony Furey who recently ran for mayor of Toronto got to know Richard as he helped him during his campaign.."We used to walk the streets together. People would stop and thank him for helping them with their education. Richard specialized in adult education and worked with people who had not completed high school or had been in trouble with the law. He helped a lot of disadvantaged students. He was a hero.” Furey went on to say that people should be "outraged at what has happened.".The Ford government has the opportunity to take the bull by the horns and do what other governments have failed to do and rein in the country's largest school board that has gone rogue..The board’s political culture is so entrenched that change from within might be impossible and must come from the province. The time is ripe for the province to appoint a supervisor to oversee its operations and make it accountable..Another idea is to split it up as it has become too big with too many moving parts. The trustee position needs to be examined as they are so closely aligned with local issues that they have become community activists, forgetting about the common good..Above all the ministry needs to review DEI training sessions and ensure they are open to respectful diverse discussions bringing people together, not dividing them and employees emerge more enlightened and not be made to feel that “whiteness” is solely responsible for society’s problems..Organizationally the TDSB needs to get out of the political arena and back on the road of pursuing academic excellence otherwise generations of young people from all walks of life will be lost to biased political indoctrination that sees life through the narrow lens of identity politics.
