Capital funding announcements for the Full Day Kindergarten program, were announced in April in SB-09, for the upcoming budget year. It looks good, it sounds good, but does it fall short? Is this all a bit of smoke and mirrors? Where will the money be for the expensive renovations needed next year, after the election?
Describing memo SB-09 in broad strokes, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has supported the 3rd year roll-outs of the Full-day Kindergarten Program (FDK) program. The money announced is for results that put “
students in seats 2012-13″.
Year 1 and 2 included the schools that were easy to convert; those that had excess capacity ( empty classrooms). As the program has rolled out schools with renovation options have been included.
Now the MOE has hit the crunch. Year 4/5 requires extensive funding to deal with schools at or over capacity (not enough classrooms) or currently balanced ( FDK requires double the space of current alternate day program). Within the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) this has significant impact in areas such as in the south Barrie and within Clearview i.e. Nottawasaga Creemore PS and Collingwood ie. Mountain View E.S. These are schools that are currently or projected to be overcapacity. They will need significant capital funding for additional facilities to carry out the universal FDK program.
In the MOE memo SB: 09 you find the first time call for use of portables as a solution option. The MOE limits the use of the funding to a max of 2.5% yr , with up to a 5% of allocation. This could of course change again next year and this number could rise to meet reality needs.
The bottom line is that to house FDK students in schools where there is no space, new spaces need to be created to accommodate the program. There are three ways to do this either create the space with renovations and additions, add portables or create middle schools. The later works better in urban environments where school facilities are nearer to each other.
Geography within a school board has an impact. Rural solutions will need to differ from urban. For example there are 13 empty classrooms with an extra 4 rented out in Midland Secondary. One can’t shift the students from Innisfil to Midland. One school board can have multiple capacity issues and the SCDSB is one of those school boards.
The Ontario government has made generalized promises but has not announced how they will fund capital needs going out. This is of particular concern as we going forward. Should the massive amount of funding that is needed be unavailable post-2011 election, the portable solution will likely be highly used across the province. It will be very unlikely that it is the children that are going in to FDK that will move into the portables, rather the students in the upper grades will be shifted outside.
Also read:
Post : Early Learning Program New Schools Added for 2012-13
Background:
MOE Site Selection Confirmation March 2, 2011 ( download full memo and list for Ontario)
Aside Note:
On the capital request list currently is a new school for Nottawasa-Creemore. This is a dual-site school that requires renovations to accommodate FDK.
