Nearly third of ODSCB schools below ‘state of good repair,’ watchdog says

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Almost one-third of Ottawa-Carleton District School Board school buildings are below a “state of good repair,” according to a report from Ontario’s financial watchdog.

Of the OCDSB’s 147 schools, 45 are below the state of good repair, said the report from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, which provides independent analysis to the provincial government.

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School buildings that are below the state of good repair threshold either require repairs or should be replaced with new schools.

The condition of school buildings is assessed on a rolling five-year cycle. Independent engineers identify building components that need repair and replacement and then quantify the costs to address these issues.

The FAO report was based on this information and used methodologies developed by the Ministry of Infrastructure to estimate whether a school building was in a “state of good repair” or “below a state of good repair.”

Over the next 10 years, it will cost $21.7 billion to clear Ontario’s school building infrastructure backlog and to maintain schools in states of good repair, plus another $9.8 billion to build new schools to address permanent capacity pressures, for a total of $31.4 billion, the FAO estimates.

In comparison, the 2024 Ontario budget capital plan allocated an estimated $18.7 billion over 10 years — resulting in an estimated funding shortfall over 10 years of $12.7 billion.

If funded at this level, the Financial Accountability Office estimates that the percentage of school buildings across Ontario that would not be in states of good repair would increase to 74.6 per cent from 37.4 per cent in 10 years.

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Meanwhile, the OCDSB faces an estimated backlog $882 million for renewal projects. That figure also leaves out administrative buildings not used as learning sites.

“That is almost a billion dollars of work that needs to be done to bring our schools back up to snuff,”  Trustee Lyra Evans said last week.

“And I’m disappointed in this being my sixth year (as a trustee) that I have sat here and it has grown from $600 million when I was first elected to $882 million now. ”

Trustee Lyra said she wasn’t blaming OCDSB staff, but noted that the funds to do the work were not available.

There are limitations on how school boards can spend provincial funding.

The OCDSB has about $81 million in “school condition improvement” funding, for example, but school boards are restricted to using 70 per cent of that to address major building components including foundations, roofs, windows and systems such as HVAC and plumbing. School boards are only allowed to use the remaining 30 per cent of their school condition improvement funding to address locally-identified needs.

The OCDSB is spending $105.75 million in facilities renewal next year, with about 500 projects ranging from roofing and HVAC upgrades to accessibility projects such as new elevators for Hillcrest and Brookfield high schools, science lab renovations of $21 million and adding or converting washrooms to universal and inclusive facilities.

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The Financial Accountability Office report did not provide figures for “below the good repair” standards for all school boards, but did note that the total proportion of schools below the standard varied by school system.

The English public system had the highest proportion of schools below the good-repair standard at 43.3 per cent, compared to 27.3 per cent for English Catholic school buildings, 31.7 per cent for French public schools and 25.7 per cent of French Catholic schools.

The province’s 10 largest boards, including the OCDSB, account for more than half of all school buildings below the state of good repair.

The Toronto District School Board had the highest share of buildings below the standard at 84.1 per cent, followed by the London-area Thames Valley District School Board at 52.5 per cent and the Toronto Catholic District School Board at 45.6 per cent.

The Financial Accountability Office also looked at capacity pressures on the school system.

School enrolment will increase by almost 90,000 students over the next 10 years, and Ontario will need to build the equivalent of 227 new schools at a cost of $9.8 billion, the report said.

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