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This issue comes up every couple of years. Let's hope this issue is brought up during the 2018 campaign, given the current fiscal realities of Ontario. The Hydro prices issue will surely get the different parties talking about ways to save money in other areas. This seems to be the easiest place to save some money. Again, my opinion is that even if nothing was saved, this should be done just in terms of equity.

And in Toronto, it may mean not much savings, but the savings would be realized in the rest of the province, where we have sometimes 4 half or quarter-empty schools with split cases of up to 3 or 4 grades in one classroom, all because of the we require and allow 4 school boards to exist.

In my mind, French and English boards would continue to exist separate from each other, and their boundaries would not be the same boundaries the English boards have ( just as they aren't now).

This thread is to discuss how the Ontario Government could re-draw the school board boundaries.


Toronto
Current:
TDSB - English Public / City of Toronto Limits
TCDSB - English Catholic / City of Toronto Limits
CSV - French Public / Most of Southern Ontario as its boundary (including the City of Toronto - Students don't necessarily go to a school in their City / e.g., some students form Mississauga attend a school in Etobicoke, etc.)
CSDCCS - French Catholic / Much of Southern/South-western Ontario (including City of Toronto)

Toronto
Current:
TDSB - 275 000 students roughly
TCDSB - 85 000 roughly

This is the one area where they couldn't simply be merged, but would have to be split into different boards by region. The TDSB is currently too big, IMO, to serve adequately.

Peel
Current
PDSB - Has about 150 000 students.
Catholic DPDSB - Has about 88 000 but serves a little larger area (Dufferin)
Can be merged. If Mississauga is successful in leaving Peel Region, I could see them having their own board, but Brampton and Caledon would have to be consolidated with another region (e.g., Dufferin, as the Catholic board current is) to have an adequately population.

French/Southern Ontario
Viamonde - 11 300
CSDCCS - 13 000
These two boards can be merged and maintain their current region (with some tweaks, they aren't exactly the same currently)

York
YRDSB - 122 000
YRCDSB - 53 000
Can simple be merged.

I don't have the time to go through all regions, but this is essentially what I think should be done.

I really hope this issue is brought forward and finally resolved, as it has been in most other provinces. Nobody wants to continue paying 300 hydro bills just so Catholics can have their own schools (and Directors of Education, and School board offices, and, and and..).