Late Friday, the provincial government announced the Ontario school board budgets for the 2019-20 school year, and both Simcoe County boards will be seeing a little boost, according to a local MPP.
The Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) will see an increase of $2,376,677, bringing their total budget to just over $600 million. The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB) will receive an increase of $3,150,584, bringing their total budget to almost $260 million.
“Simcoe County is seeing an increase of over $5.4 million in funding for schools in our public and Catholic boards. This is terrific news for families throughout our region,” Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey said in a news release.
“This increase will ensure we are protecting what matters most, and that educators have the resources they need to continue delivering world-class education to the next generation of Ontarians,” he added.
However, Jen Hare, the teachers’ bargaining union president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) for Simcoe County, told BarrieToday that the billions of funding the government is telling everyone they are giving out is merely a ploy to look better to the public eye.
“That is simply the announcement of the attrition funding they had already promised us, so its really just the number associated with the number we already knew we were getting,” Hare said Friday afternoon. “It is all absolutely smoke and mirrors to try and placate the situation and try to make themselves look better in the media.”
When reached for comment on the announcement on Friday, Melanie Slade Morrison, communications officer with the Simcoe County District School Board, would only say that the school board has received the information regarding funding.
“We will be reviewing it to determine the impact on our board,” said Morrison.
BarrieToday also contacted the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board for comment, but didn’t receive a response by publication time.
Ontario’s total education budget for 2019-20 is more than $24.66 billion. The money is distributed to school boards across the province where each school board then decides how to allocate their funds.
- With files from Shawn Gibson
