BROCKVILLE – An Upper Canada District School Board trustee called out the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario for not considering a proposal to change the start times for the region’s schools.
Ward 9 (Cornwall) Trustee David McDonald made the statements following a report from the Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario on options for bus transportation supporting the school time change.
Nearly two years ago, the UCDSB proposed to flip the start times for Elementary and Secondary students after reviewing studies on sleep and how it impacts student learning. The board, and the CDSBEO, co-own the STEO transportation consortium. In order for there to be no cost for the transportation changes, both boards had to agree, which so far the CDSBEO has been uninterested in doing. This was confirmed by UCDSB Chair Jamie Schoular at the March 5 meeting.
He said in discussions with the CDSBEO, “They prefer to remain status quo.” McDonald, who spearheaded the initiative in April 2023, was unhappy with the lack of progress.
“What frustrates me more than anything is that our dear colleagues at the CDSBEO were afraid to dip their toe in the water to even contemplate discussing this item,” he told the board.
STEO’s presentation to the board pegged the cost of separately run transportation from the CDSBEO at $2 million. The board is already facing a transportation funding shortfall from the province of $7 million by 2027.
“We have 13-14,000 students represented by the Catholic board impacting the 28,000 students in the Upper Canada board. That would cost us $2 million, but if we worked together, this would have cost us nothing,” McDonald said.
STEO CEO Janet Murray confirmed simply moving the schedule around for both school boards had no financial impact as the routes, buses and drivers needed would be the same. Murray also said in response to trustee questions that they were constrained by the driver pool if the UCDSB went on their own for transportation schedules.
McDonald continued his comments, speaking to a previous STEO meeting.
“We know that there are students that are choosing not to go to a school in the community that they live in, which is our school, to attend a CDSBEO school. The choice is their’s and I agree to that. But in order to get to that school – which is over 60 kilometres away – they have to be on the bus at 6:30 in the morning to make it to their start time. I don’t think that’s good for kids,” he said. “Using that scenario, we still struggled to convince our colleagues that it was worth at least a conversation.”
McDonald said that he believed the medical experts and medical officers of health that said that the later start time would improve learning for teens in secondary school.
“We would have improved opportunities and outcomes for families and for Secondary students,” he said. “I really struggle with trustees representing the broader communities failing to make decisions – or wanting to make decisions – because of the lack of political fortitude, which is what it really comes down too.”
The move to flip the start times met with resistance from parents in some UCDSB school communities, who were concerned about opportunities for part-time jobs, help on the farm, or childcare issues where older siblings look after younger siblings.
Student Trustee Annika Squires said that she did not believe the school times being pushed back was going to help students.
“I don’t think it is going to help students get more sleep. Everything is just going to push back the time.”
McDonald said that he still believed the start time change was the right thing to do.
“But I am not prepared to spend $2 million that would take away from opportunity for our 28,000 kids. I am disappointed in our colleagues at the CDSBEO for their lack of attention to this and their lack of ability to work together to improve the lives of kids in Eastern Ontario.
The Leader confirmed previously that no discussion has taken place at a CDSBEO board meeting on the UCDSB start time/bell time change proposal.
Without a resolution to authorize spending further money, or make changes to the existing proposal to change start times, it appears that for now – there will be no change to start times in the immediate future.