Aquatic programs in jeopardy at 20 schools after TDSB cuts instructors

Lack of funding for an integral school program has left students, teachers and parents in disbelief.

Swim programs at eight elementary schools and 12 high schools are in jeopardy after the Toronto District School Board cut aquatic instructors, miscalculating how many would be needed to keep the programs alive.

“In public education, it just feels like we’re lowering the bar and eventually, how low can it go?” said Grade 3 teacher at Brown Public School, Geoff Loughton.

A “Save our pool” sign now hangs in the window at the school in Midtown Toronto and parents and teachers fighting for the swim program students have come to love for generations.

“We’re just going to push and push and push the resiliency of our kids and take away all these good things? You know, the Minister of Education said we should go back to basics. Is that just going to be three hours of math and three hours of language – and nothing else?” asked Loughton.

Thirty per cent of Toronto elementary schools and high schools with pools will lose aquatic instructors and will be forced to share on a rotating, bi-weekly basis.

“And a lot of people think, ‘Oh a school with a pool, how privileged, how lucky.’ Well, we don’t have any green space at this school,” Loughton added.

The TDSB made the cuts with the promise that it wouldn’t impact programming but the board said after reviewing the details, it wasn’t possible to maintain the same service levels.

“The board staff admitted they made a mistake, and represented that programming wouldn’t be impacted, instead of going to the elected trustees with that, they tried to move ahead implementing a model that doesn’t make sense and is unfair to our students,” said concerned parent Karina Walsh.

The decision was met with fierce pushback.

Parents and teachers expressing their concerns to TDSB trustees at lively meeting on Monday.

“As a teacher, I see things from a different lens, I see students that may not excel academically in math or various other subjects, but swimming is their thing,” said one teacher during the meeting.

Thirteen instructors will be cut, saving the board roughly $1 million.

Teachers say by cutting their budget, they’re cutting a pivotal school experience for kids.

“The board will tell you they’re not cutting aquatics, they’ll say, ‘No, we’ll have a rotating cast of aquatics instructors coming through every other week,’ but that’s fundamentally a cut, that’s fundamentally a huge departure from what the norm has been at Brown,” said Loughton.

And the pools will be left underutilized. “At best case, 50 per cent of the time it would be used, but in reality, when you look at how it’s going play out, it’s going be decimated,” said Walsh.

“The impact on kids is just that slow drip, drip, drip away of public education and it’s just a shame that the TDSB is complicit in the cuts the province is pushing,” shared Loughton.

These are the elementary schools impacted by the cuts to aquatic programs;

• Brown Public School
• Hillcrest Public School
• Earl Grey Public School
• Earl Beatty Public School
• Queen Alexandra Public School
• Winona Public School
• Market Lane / Downtown Alt. School
• Frankland Public School