Swimming pools and aquatic instructors could be casualties of budget cuts being considered by the Toronto District School Board.
According to CBC, the Board wants to eliminate a $58 million budget deficit and is considering closing pools it doesn’t lease out and cutting the jobs of 86 aquatic instructors in an effort to balance the books.
The school board leases out 27 of its 66 pools to the city and two more are leased privately for programming after school.
The board is also considering cutting music instructors and outdoor education facilities.
A district report says that closing the pools it doesn’t lease out and cutting the aquatic instructors would save more than $12.8 million.
Councillor Josh Mallow and Board Trustee Shelley Laskin are among those who have launched efforts to save the pools from closing.
In a joint statement that can be viewed on X, Mallow and Laskin said they are saddened to learn that the pools are at risk. The two also launched a petition for people to sign that can be viewed here.
“Learning how to swim is an essential part of a child’s education,” the statement said. “School pools ensure that kids from all backgrounds have access to lifesaving skills they can rely on. Pools are deeply valued by the surrounding local communities as they promote recreational opportunities for youth, seniors and everyone in between.”
The statement said that the school district faced a similar threat in 2008, and that the province of Ontario stepped in to provide funding to keep the pools open.
Mallow is calling on the province to do so once again.
“We are calling on the Government of Ontario to take responsibility and step in to protect these neighbourhood assets,” the statement said.
The school board said it faces the deficit due to underfunding of statutory benefits, the inability to close underutilized schools, and the fact that grant revenue has not kept up with the cost of inflation.
Hoping the clubs who depend on these pools can fully lease them out. Unfortunately, the bigger issue is that most pools are super old and are constantly breaking down, requiring TDSB to pay for the cost, which is now off the table.