2015-16 Education Funding

Consultations: What We HeardFebruary 26, 2015

Education Funding Consultations – Overview• Funding consultations with a broad range of education

partners, including school boards, parent groups, student trustees, CUPE and support staff unions, principals’/VPs’ associations, and teachers’ federations.

• Broadest funding conversation since Rozanski’s Education Equality Task Force over a decade ago, in terms of participation.

• Allows us to continue to integrate financial perspectives with academic and policy expertise from our education partners as well as the Ministry.

• Focused on five topics:1. Identifying efficiencies2. Making more efficient use of school space3. Community partnerships4. Accountability5. Sharing Savings

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On the Principles/Efficiencies

• Broad general agreement on principles

• On aligning with Achieving Excellence, recognize that a board may have its own local priorities to achieve as well

• Include recognition of denominational differences

• Integrated upstream planning by all public sector partners is key, e.g., community hubs

• Most frequently cited obstacles to finding efficiencies:– 80% plus of budgets go to salaries and

benefits– Classroom sizes are regulated

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On More Efficient Use of School Space

• Funding, local politics still appear to work against most effective use of space

• Many suggestions for streamlining decisions/processes in closures and disposals

• Operational challenges:– School hard to close if it means 1 hr.+

bus ride– As demographics change, space may

be needed later– In most schools, some “unused” space

is needed for French, music, etc.– Community Hubs

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On Hubs/Community Partnerships• Cautious optimism for Provincial

role in aligning with other ministries and municipalities– There is a broad range of

hubs/partnerships out there and working and many great ideas for what a hub could offer

– Major foci: childcare, wrap-around supports/mental health

• Cost is a consideration that must be addressed

• Complexity of existing and potential arrangements needs to be considered, as well as school and board capacity to find and maintain partnerships

• Hubs may not be viable everywhere 5

On Accountability• High quantity of reporting, need to ensure improving

accountability and streamline as much as possible• Flexibility is important. However, need for sweatering is

understood and in some cases encouraged– LOG and Safe Schools amounts – in many cases these amounts are

already earmarked for intended purposes. Support for sweatering in high level program.

– Could focus reporting on which programs are working well and which do not for suspended and expelled pupils.

• Transparency also key, need to balance board and federation perspective

• More suggestions:– Avoid “money sparklers” (i.e. very small amounts of funding with

significant conditions on expenditures) and “money bombs” (i.e., announcements of available funding that require application on short notice late in the school year)

– Bundle/consolidate funds with same goal– Set $ threshold for reporting on EPO grants– Focus more on what ministry really needs– Reduce report-backs across ministry

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On Shared Savings

• Main priorities for investment:– Mental health and students

with special education needs– Continuing education supports,

particularly for pupils with special education needs over 21 yrs. old.

– Invest in teaching (P.D., etc.)– Technology

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Next Steps• Taking all feedback into consideration as we move into

planning and budgeting season• Initiating Technical Advisory Committee to review

definition of school for funding purposes• Committed to make sure funding conversation reaches

to all areas of the ministry and stakeholders, REC, other ministries

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Education Finance Branch Update

February 26, 2015

Working to Launch the GSN

• As in previous years, we are working hard to have the details of the GSN announced to school boards by the end of March

• Regulations are usually released in March/April, however, there is a possibility that they will need to be revised pending the result of labour negotiations

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Technical Advisory Committee

• Some GSN issues require a “deep dive”• Establishing a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to:

– Analyze technical issues;– Support the collection of data from boards as required;– Develop options to address existing technical challenges;

and– Make recommendations to the Ministry.

• First focus for TAC is a review of the definition of a school for the purposes of in-school administration funding (aka the School Foundation Grant)

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Enrolment Reporting

• The ministry is working to support the modernization of Continuing Education reporting by transitioning to electronic reporting in order to increase program accountability and streamline reporting requirements

• Phased implementation approach:

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Phase Timing Focus

Phase 1 2014 - 2015 • Credit-based enrolment registers

• Data collection to begin in August

• Opportunity to reconcile OnSIS data with EFIS data

Phase 2 2015 - 2016 • Non-credit based enrolment registers

• Phase 2 business requirements to be released over the next month

Capital Policy and Programs Branch

Update

February 26, 2015

Capital Planning Capacity

In March 2014, as part of the 2014-15 GSN release, the Ministry announced an investment of $8.3M to help school boards address school board concerns that they have insufficient internal capacity or financial resources to effectively right-size their schools and manage their excess capacity in response to the SBEM initiative.

Objectives

1. Increase decision making capacity by ensuring that all boards are able to update and manage facility data, including utilization levels and renewal data, in a timely manner.

2. Provide targeted funding to boards with excess capacity to: A. Ensure that they have revised capital plans to effectively right-size

and manage their systems;B. Enable boards to effectively and efficiently undertake ARC

processes under compressed timelines; and C. Support and identify potential facility partnerships (e.g. community

hubs, joint-use planning) in viable schools.14

Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline

• As part of the Ministry’s SBEM initiative, PARG revisions are planned for release in early 2015.

• Consultations with representatives from school boards who currently sit on the Ministry’s Capital Advisory Committee began in early 2014, specifically with the intent of improving flexibility for school boards while maintaining community input in the review process.

• The Ministry recently conducted further consultations with many other education partners (boards, trustees, municipalities, parents, teachers, students) to gain local input of the changes to the PARG and the best way to move forward

• The PARG only set minimum provincial standards with each school board expected to amend their own policy to be in compliance with the revised standards. At that time, boards would have the opportunity to consult with their local communities on changes to the their local policies and procedures within the framework of the revised PARG.

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School Consolidation Capital

• As part of the 2014-15 GSN, the government has introduced a new, four year $750M program for school boards to effectively and efficiently manage their excess capacity and to right-size their capital foot-print.

• This funding will be allocated for new schools, retrofits and additions that support consolidations and/or demolish existing excess capacity at schools to reduce renewal and operating costs.

• School boards across the province identified 79 projects, worth approximately $660 million, in requests for funding under the 2014 School Consolidation Capital (SCC) program. Ministry funding approval decisions were based on:– the cost of the proposed project,– the amount of spaces removed,– the reduction of renewal needs through closures, and– the opportunity for program enhancement.

• Ministry is currently in the process of notifying boards of their funding decisions with provincial announcement expected by March Break

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Capital Priorities

• On an annual basis, the Ministry requests that school boards submit their updated Capital Priority requests for the next 3 years based on urgency and need.

• Funding is focused on addressing boards’ priority capital needs. These capital projects allow boards to:– Address local accommodation pressures,– Retrofit and/or replace schools in poor condition,– Consolidate underutilized schools, and– Address the needs of under-served French-language rights holders.

• Since 2011, the Capital Priorities Grant has provided over $2B in funding approvals to support school boards’ most urgent infrastructure needs.

• Information regarding the next round of Capital Priorities is expected to be communicated to the sector in Spring 2015.

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School Condition Improvement

• School Condition Improvement was announced in 2011 as a limited three year program to address school renewal needs

• Since 2011-12, $800M in SCI funding has flowed to school boards with another $1B to be allocated over the next 2 years.– This represents the largest government investment in school

renewal since the Good Places to Learn Renewal Program in the mid-2000s.

• 2015-16 SCI Allocation– Based on condition assessment result.– Facility utilization levels to be factored in for non-isolate schools.– Funding to target priority areas:

• Building envelope• Mechanical system / services

– Flow of funds tied to TCPS reporting

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SFIS Modernization

• The SFIS Modernization project consist of:– A complete redesign and replacement of the existing legacy SFIS

system – A solution that meets the continuously changing and growing

business needs of the sector• A modernized SFIS will comply to the accessibility standards

provided in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 and its regulations and all other OPS GO-ITS standards.

• In addition, it would allow the implementation of new identified business needs which could not be implemented in the legacy system:

• A new SFIS would include tools such as:– Capital Analysis and Planning Template– Business Case Submission– Approval to Proceed Request Form– Space Template– Benchmark Calculator

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Capital Analysis and Planning Template

• The ministry is currently reviewing the submitted templates and working with boards to reconcile any problems with their submissions.

• The Ministry will continue its review of board’s Capital Financial Risk position using the CAPT’s

• We’ll be sending an approved year-end copy of the board’s CAPT, as well as a copy that reflects all subsequent approvals.

• Reminder that in-year CAPT’s will now be modified by Ministry staff as per submitted ATP request forms

• We don’t anticipate substantial changes in next year’s CAPT, however, if you have any suggestions, please contact:– Capital: Lisa Bland

lisa.bland@ontario.ca– Finance: Michelle Zheng

michelle.zheng@ontario.ca

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