Officials with the Toronto District School Board are scrambling to ease the concerns of parents and students worried that an initiative meant to “enhance equity” will lead to the end of specialized programs.

The board says that “is not their intent.”

Earlier this month, the TDSB Equity Task Force released a draft report as a result of a year-long community engagement process, to “explore what equity strategies have worked and identify where challenges remain.”

One of the recommendations put forward, to “eliminate disparities between schools” is to work to realign resources “so that all schools, at least every cluster of local schools, can offer a variety of specialty programs.”

And once that is achieved, the report suggests that “optional attendance and specialized schools should be phased out.”

Phi Than, parent’s council co-chair at Earl Haig, in North York said parents were shocked to see the “phasing out of schools” even considered.

“When we read the report, we thought, wow these are really sweeping changes,” said Than, who has daughter who attends Claude Watson Secondary Arts Program at Earl Haig, one that both she and husband also attended for high school.

“We truly believe in specialized programs, and we wish that every child would have access to it and the same benefits that we have had,” she said. “But the board is struggling financially. How do they train the teachers? How can they implement this quality of education across the city? There are so many unanswered questions.”

But TDSB director John Malloy says shutting down specialty schools, like the Claude Watson Arts Program offered at Earl Haig, is not the intent of the proposal.

“I believe there is no intention of closing art schools, and there is no intention of ending great programs,” he said. “As director, I would certainly not be bringing that recommendation to the board.”

“However, we do wish to explore how to provide greater access so all of our students can participate in the programs they deserve,” he said.

He said the recommendation would have no impact on other specialty programs that are run within schools either such as gifted programs, STEM, International Baccalaureate, or TOPS.

The report says, “The task force recognizes that specialized schools and programs, along with optional attendance, while benefitting certain populations, have inadvertently resulted in greater competition and disparities between schools.

“In many cases, these schools and programs have served to limit enriched learning opportunities for students, especially those from the most marginalized communities, who experience barriers to accessing optional attendance,” it states.

The Federation of Canadian Secondary Students | Fédération des élèves du secondaire au Canada (FCSS-FESC), also sent out of a press release over the weekend protesting the proposal and said the board should “investigate alternative solutions to educational inequity (that) support the improvement of underprivileged students and schools without limiting opportunities for others to learn and perform to the best of their abilities.”

Malloy added that the recommendations are a draft, and that community members are welcome to weigh in. “Nothing is set in stone,” he said.

He said once feedback is received, a report will come to trustees in December. If approved, staff will work on the report and offer next steps early next year.

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In the meantime, he said he will speak to the facilitator of the task force this week about clarifying the he language around the recommendation.

“We understand everyone’s perspectives, but don’t want to get distracted from this really important work of equitable access,” he said.