Simcoe County reaching 'critical' need for new schools

Simcoe County District School Board trustees have aired frustrations with the province’s process for accessing capital needs, while sharing concern over how many local schools are bursting at the seams.

During their Feb. 3 business and facilities standing committee meeting, trustees got a first look at where board staff will be recommending new schools be built, replaced or expanded across Simcoe County.

Superintendent of business and facilities Brian Jeffs said the board has received information from the province that they will be requesting a new list of capital priorities before the end of March, so the board has been preparing to be ready for that request.

Innisfil trustee Donna Armstrong expressed exasperation with the process.

“This is an incredible amount of work to put together and submit,” said Armstrong. “When we look at capital needs, it should be driven by need, rather than politics. This is the frustrating thing. There are critical renewal issues in our secondary panel. I’m just astounded that we’ve only built one high school in so many years.”

According to a school board official, the last time the board received an approval letter for funding for a new secondary school from the Ministry of Education was for Georgian Bay District Secondary School on March 23, 2015.

In 2016, the population of Simcoe County was estimated at 479,650. This year, it is expected to reach 533,000.

The capital projects currently under consideration for the next three-year cycle, listed alphabetically, are as follows:

• Banting Memorial High School (replacement school)
• Killarney Beach Public School (addition)
• New Alcona elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Alliston elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Angus elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Barrie #1 Southeast elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Barrie #2 Southeast elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Barrie #1 Southwest elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Bradford secondary school (growth accommodation)
• New Orillia elementary school (growth accommodation)
• New Tottenham elementary school (growth accommodation)
• Northwest Simcoe secondary schools (growth accommodation)

In July 2020, the province announced its first round of funding for school capital projects, for 2019/2020. Through that announcement, the public school board would receive $13.4 million for a new 593-pupil elementary school in south Bradford West Gwillimbury (which had been ranked No. 1 on the board’s priority list) and $5.8 million for a new facility to replace Shanty Bay Public School (which had been ranked No. 10). In an October 2020 announcement, the province announced an additional $5.4 million for a growth addition for Lake Simcoe Public School (it had been ranked No. 3).

The announcement in July came with some controversy, as it didn’t align with the capital priority list previously approved by the public school board. When asked why the Ministry of Education didn’t adhere to the priority list in the order sent by the school board, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce told BarrieToday that Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey’s advocacy for Shanty Bay project played a large role in it receiving the funding.

“It’s frustrating to be a long-term trustee and see our high schools in such dire need,” said Armstrong. “It seems very unfair that boards and staff have to put these business cases together, but it doesn’t really matter what the business case says because we have seen in this county political favouritism toward certain areas where the needs aren’t there.

“I don’t know what strategy we can use other than sound the alarm. If you have a child in elementary school, in five years we’re going to be in a difficult, critical mass of our current schools,” she added.

Orillia-Ramara-Severn trustee and board chair Jodi Lloyd asked Jeffs whether the ministry has acknowledged the “dire” need the public board has for capital projects.

“When you look at that list of priorities, we have three high schools and all those elementary schools. That is a significant... need. We have these students and we have to have somewhere to educate these students,” said Lloyd. “Are the staff acknowledging the need we have up here? I’m hoping it’s recognized how desperate the situation is."

Jeffs said ministry staff understands the pressures Simcoe County is under.

“It’s growing,” he said. “They’re limited by what they can do. It’s all limited by the money that’s made available.”

Jeffs pointed specifically to the Bradford, Angus and Alliston areas as dealing with significant growth pressures.

“We’ll do our best to sell ourselves at the ministry when we get a chance to meet with them,” said Jeffs.

Adjala-Tosorontio-Clearview-CFB Borden-Essa trustee Robert North talked about pressure facing Angus schools.

“I have two (elementary) schools that are just over a kilometre apart,” he said. “We have in access of 400 kids between those two schools – enough for their own school right now. One school has 12 portables, and I believe the other has 10. We’re not able to add more portables.

“The need is dire and it has been for a while,” North added.

New Tecumseth trustee Sarah Beitz asked if there was a plan to put political pressure on the ministry.

“There’s a huge backlog with Banting (Memorial High School) and it has to be done,” said Beitz.

Jeffs said that Banting, as well as Collingwood Collegiate Institute (CCI), have requests in for updated facility reports which could be used to bolster the case for improvements. Both schools have been identified in the capital priorities report as reaching “critical” need. As the two oldest secondary schools board-wide, Banting opened in 1949, while CCI followed four years later.

“It’s sad that we have to talk about political strategy to push forward for investments,” said North. “Those decisions should be based on need and data.”

There are three circumstances in which contingency plans have been developed in the event of building failure or critical site limitations.

The schools identified with these plans are Forest Hill Public School in Midhurst, Shanty Bay Public School in Oro-Medonte Township and Banting. Given the recent facility condition report, public board staff will be considering the need for a formal contingency plan for CCI.

“There is urgent, urgent need in this area,” said Collingwood-Wasaga Beach trustee Tanya Snell, adding that she looks forward to the facility report for CCI.

Beitz also raised concerns that enrolment figures for the current year may be skewed by COVID-19, as many families chose not to enrol children in kindergarten or chose to home school during the pandemic.

Jeffs said staff would look at including a note speaking to that in any business case submitted to the province.

Looking forward, once the Ministry of Education puts forward a request for priorities, trustees will prioritize and rank the projects for submission to the province before final business cases are sent to ask for funding.