Staffing levels and program delivery in public schools are being dealt a significant blow after the Toronto District School Board voted Wednesday night on a budget that will save $67.8 million over two years — a necessary move given the “enormity” of funding cuts by the Ford government.

“Not all programs and services valued by community could be saved given the enormity of provincial cuts,” TDSB chair Robin Pilkey told reporters after the budget passed with a vote of 18 to 4.

“As challenging as it has been to make these reductions, I believe the board of trustees has made the best of a most difficult situation with provincial budget reductions that came to us very late in the budget process.”

The public consultation process for the budget included more than 100 delegations and 250 written submission. Board staff said they were careful not to target one area of the budget and wherever possible, tried to avoid eliminating programs and services.

Still, some trustees voted against the budget, including Alexander Brown, who said at the meeting, “This has been purely an exercise in finding cuts … We’ve been put under the gun.”

“We’re going in the wrong direction,” said Brown, whose comments drew applause from the public gallery. “All boards need to stand up and say to Doug Ford: ‘No, we cannot allow our public education system to be decimated just because you need to find some efficiencies.’”

The board’s annual operating budget is about $3.4 billion. Trustees faced a $67.8 million budget shortfall that includes a $42.1 million cut in provincial funds. By law, school boards must submit a proposed balanced budget to the Ministry of Education by June 30; if they fail to do so, a provincial supervisor could be sent in.

“I hate this budget,” Trustee Jennifer Story said at the meeting, adding she would support it because she didn’t want to give the government an “opportunity to swing a wrecking ball right through the TDSB.”

“To add insult to injury, it’s clear that the Ford government lacks public support for these cuts,” she said. “Ontarians now see that the premier’s brutal and incompetent, in my view, management of key files, including education, are contrary to the public interest.”

The TDSB budget plans the savings over two years, with reductions of $46.8 million in the 2019-20 school year and $21 million in 2020-21.

“This budget, in my mind, represents the best possible options given the very difficult decisions that we have to make,” Trustee Shelley Laskin told the Star before the meeting.

Also prior to the meeting, Trustee Parthi Kandavel said, “We’ve made the best out of a bad situation.”

“We’ve made the equitable distribution of resources a priority…We’ve worked hard to lessen the impact of what students will feel in the classroom.”

To minimize those impacts, senior staff at central administration will be reduced — including seven superintendents, 13 centrally assigned principals, eight early reading coaches and 15 guidance positions — for a savings of $17 million.

Student support services will also be cut, including 10 psychology staff, four speech and language pathologists and two social workers. Facilities staff will also be cut, including 52 caretakers, with the board proposing that classrooms not used for core programming be closed to maintain cleanliness. And in Year Two, 296 lunchroom supervisors will be cut.

For elementary students, there will be changes to the music program. Itinerant music instructors — professional musicians who deliver classes such as strings, steel pan and band — will see a reduction of 24 per cent in travel time, travel expenses and programming hours.

Busing services will continue in the fall for French immersion and extended French students in senior kindergarten to grade 8, and for gifted students in grades 4 to 8. But high school students in these programs will no longer be given TTC tickets by the board. In 2020-21, bus service will be reduced for elementary students in gifted and French programs and schools will adjust bell times to improve efficiency of routes.

The international languages program that is integrated into the school day will be cut, impacting 3,300 students. But the much larger language program offered on the weekend —it serves 7,500 students — will continue on Saturdays.

And, the international baccalaureate program for elementary students, offered at five schools, is being eliminated.

Outdoor education will see a reduction of staff at all 10 of the board’s sites, which serve about 65,000 students, and increased user fees. The Etobicoke Field Studies Centre will be closed this year, followed by the Etobicoke Outdoor Education Centre next year.

Some — but not all — schools will see their budgets cut by five per cent. The decisions about which ones will be affected will be based on factors such as a school’s size, its access to fundraising dollars and the number of students who are socio-economically challenged.

Areas of the budget that were untouched include support for early years, special education, model schools, funding for school and student safety, and initiatives in equity, anti-oppression and anti-racism.

In an effort to make money, the board will hike tuition fees for international students in the 2020-21 school year to $16,000; currently, those at the elementary level pay $12,500 and those in high school pay $14,500.

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The board, which currently makes $30 million in revenue from international students, says the increase will help offset a recently announced $1,300 fee that the province will start collecting for each international student. Currently, there are about 2,300 international students, but the program will be expanded by 200 additional students by the end of 2020-21.

Leslie Wolfe, president of the Toronto local of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, who was in the public gallery, said she was “exceedingly disappointed that local school boards across Ontario have been faced with having to make cuts at a time when growth is happening in many boards.”

“The entire crisis of budget that is being faced by the Toronto District School Board can be laid directly at the feet of Doug Ford government,” she told reporters at the meeting.

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