Following a protest by educators, parents and union leaders warning that spending cuts will hurt students, senior staff at Toronto’s public school board delivered a budget presentation Tuesday night that was thin on details.
Staff were scheduled to present a 2026-27 budget update to the Toronto District School Board’s parent involvement advisory committee. Instead, no new figures were revealed.
Instead, they delivered a high-level overview focused on the general budget process, survey results, declining enrolment and ministry funding — making little reference to coming staff reductions.
Parents raised concerns about various issues, including money coming from school budgets to help cover the $750 spending card for teachers, as well as cuts to model schools and the loss of a number of cafeterias.
Stacey Zucker, the board’s new CFO and chief operations officer, said that although it is moving away from the current model schools program, it will continue to support students based on need.
When asked by parents if the board will balance its books with this budget, Zucker said: “We may not be completely balanced at the end of this year, but there certainly will be a plan to get there.”
Katrina Matheson, co-chair of the parent committee, said members “came with a lot of questions and clearly there is more work to do.”
The committee, she added, “should be closely involved in the budget process because parents were bringing a lot of personal concerns.”
Crystal Stewart, a parent committee representative, called the meeting “terrible.”
“We’re entitled to more information, and they haven’t given it to us.”
The board is currently being run by provincially appointed supervisor Rohit Gupta, who was present at the meeting but did not answer questions. At the end of the meeting, he said he’d worked closely with senior staff.
That prompted members in the public gallery to shout, “Your cuts are hurting our kids,” and that his $350,000 salary should instead be put toward public education.
While the budget-setting process typically involves weeks of public meetings and trustee debates, this year’s decisions have been made behind closed doors — and it remains unclear if the almost $3.34 billion final spending plan will be made public before it’s submitted to the ministry by the end of June.
The Star has already reported on many of the cost-cutting measures being implemented at the board, which has a $25 million deficit this year and faces continued declining student enrolment that further reduces its funding.
Reductions for next year include the elimination of 792 staff positions — this includes cuts of 40 vice-principals, 289 teachers and 461 support staff, such as educational assistants and designated early childhood educators.
Savings will also be found by closing a main distribution centre, five outdoor education centres, nine unprofitable school cafeterias and the board’s museum and archives.
The board is also cutting additional staff to model schools in the city’s most disadvantaged communities, which has meant smaller class sizes and more support staff.
Before the meeting, a rally was held outside, with mother Bibi Hanif — whose children attend a model school in the Jane-Finch area — saying “the impact is felt most by our most vulnerable students.”
The Ministry of Education is making a record $43 billion investment in provincial education, but boards have long argued that they are underfunded and the money has not kept pace with inflation.
John Weatherup, president of Toronto Education Workers CUPE local 4400, pushed back against the board’s claim that reductions are because of declining enrolment, with an expected drop by 5,000 to a total of 232,000 students in 2026-27 — which the board attributes to demographics, lower immigration rates and families moving out of the Greater Toronto Area.
“Declining enrolment is part of it,” Weatherup told the Star, “but they’re short-funded from the provincial government to begin with.”
Budget discussions were also on the agenda at a Monday night meeting of the board’s special education advisory committee, made up of members from organizations that represent kids with disabilities or special education needs.
Staff are required to consult with the committee on special education budget matters.
“They went through this charade of giving us virtually no information, way less than we ever got” in past years, said committee chair David Lepofsky on Tuesday, adding he was “appalled.”
“We don’t know how many special education staff at head office are cut. They’ve told us they’re not cutting special education staff in the classroom, but we don’t know what other cuts are happening at the board that could have a direct effect on our kids.”
