How often do you, my fellow watotos, go on a school trip in one school year? Three, may be four times each year? How often are you asked to pay for these trips? Almost all the time I bet, right? Now, for my fellow uncles, aunties, and other parents, how often do you find the price of the school trips your child attends is unreasonable? I would say all of the time! Sometimes, school trips cost maybe forty or even fifty dollars and your child ends up disliking the experience. Other times, the price of a school trip is so low that I wonder why the school does not just pay for them. Personally, I believe all school trips should indeed be paid for by the school, because it is the school that wants the students to go on them in the first place; of course they call them part of learning. Alas, the schools are always asking for the money from your parents (parents who pay taxes from their incomes and some allow part of their property tax to go into specific school board education funds). The government also gives the school boards monies for education purposes. So what is the school board using all these monies for?

I know some of you are going to say that they use all the monies for overall improvements to the school. I know for a fact that they use some of the money for new technology, physical education equipment, school supplies (by the way, we buy most of the school supplies ourselves nowadays… you know the so called back to school sales!!!), and overall enhancements to the school environment such as expansions. But do they really use all these monies for such developments? I know that our school said each year that they were going to improve the way we learn with technology by improving our computers and related technologies. Alas, to many students’ dismays, we have not seen any new desktops in our classrooms and library, something that all the students wanted more than anything. It is funny because with all these huge fundraisers we have every year, you would think they could afford desktops instead of ineffective Chrome Books.

Recently in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), it was discovered through an internal audit that many school board trustees (elected by the people, parents included, and we are seeing all the signs besides many streets for the coming municipal elections) were spending the money meant for schools. They are called trustees because they are supposed to be trusted with our monies, we are supposed to trust the decisions they make, and everything they do is supposed to be trusted, because they are “TRUSTEES.” Wikipedia defines a trustee as, “any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another.” I know some of you will think I am making it up, but honestly, there were expenses such as

  • Floor mat (as if the office he/she is occupying is no carpeted)
  • Frequent meal claims (while schools sell hot lunch from Lunch Ladies etc. and Milk for students)
  • A book at the airport (while our school libraries are full of old books)
  • A tour of Israel (who knows if he has some relatives there to visit)
  • Groceries, including lotion and nuts (while some families depend on Food Banks for their daily meals)
  • A clock radio for trustee’s office (some classes do not even have radios let alone clock in them)
  • An aerial tour of the oil sands in Alberta (that maybe could have been offered to some high school Chemistry class instead of him)
  • iMac Air computer (while thousands of students are still on old computer taking half an hour to login)
  • Frequent purchases at Starbucks and fast-food restaurants (while school council are busy selling Pizza to students instead of focusing on how to improve student educational matters)
  • Chocolate bars (these are also sold by School councils in most schools)
  • TTC tokens without reasons provided and claimed 265 km for a 76 km trip to the airport
  • Numerous downtown Toronto parking expenses
  • Tens of thousands of dollars for out-of-town conferences (while poor parents are struggling paying for their kids school trips)
  • Charged for staying in a downtown Toronto hotel for a conference, when they all live in the city (I know this year for sure my parents will have to pay for my Ottawa trip which again could have been free)
  • Cell phone bills and U.S, international, texting, and roaming charges (who were they calling?)
  • Taxi fare (while students have to pay for school buses….I mean school buses not even luxurious coach buses)

If I list all of what is found in the audit report, my blog piece will be too long. This misuse of money that was supposed to be passed down to the schools in the TDSB by the school board trustees is an embarrassment and they should be fined a lot for their unprofessional actions, possibly even fired. It is outrageous how these people spend money, especially money that is not theirs. My mom always says that a wrongdoer will always be caught no matter how well they hide their crime. In this case, the irresponsible spending lasted for four years starting in 2010 and up until 2014.

Something I would just love to ask these trustees if I ever met them, how they would feel if the accountants at the bank where they bank all of their life savings and their pension, used some of it for their personal needs, for unreasonable activities. That is almost exactly what these school board trustees were doing to the parents of the children who pay taxes and donate to schools often. I know I would be very angry, furious and I would most likely demand for this employee to be fired on the spot. I definitely would not be surprised if that was the fate for these TDSB staff members. These trustees were obviously not thinking of the children’s futures when they so greedily used the money meant to be invested in the young people’s education.

Schools will keep asking for money whether through donations, raffles and even offer prizes, for special lunches, or for trips that are overpriced or I-can’t-believe-you-won’t-just-pay-for-that-yourselves prices that we watotos might not even have the benefit of taking pleasure in. Who knows, maybe the schools out there do not make as much money from donations. To all you watotos in the TDSB, I am sorry if these trustees’ actions affected you in any way. I know that none of you will grow up to ever swindle a child of their education. I hope that all those who were listed in the audit report do not…I repeat… do not get elected to go back into these positions. Open your eyes parents and vote for change….

Angelous