Peel board closing 100 classrooms due to cuts in cleaning budget

The Peel District School Board will close "about 100" music and French-languageclassrooms this year due to shrinking cleaning budgets, the board'sdirector of educationsays.

In place of dedicated classrooms, class supplies for vocal music and French lessons will be loaded onto carts and wheeled into the students' main classrooms.

"From an efficiency perspective, [the government] would say, you don't need that French classroom, because French could be delivered in the regular classrooms," Tony Pontes said.

The closures are rolling out atelementary and secondary schools in the district.

In the past, Peel received about $5-milliona year to clean and maintain classrooms that were empty or only in use for a portion of the day.

This year, that funding was cut by $2.8 million, an amount that Pontes said was impossible to recoup in other parts of the board's budget.

"It would have certainly meant cuts in staff and programsso we decided that it was better to maintain [them] and not clean those classrooms and close them."

'It's disappointing'

Instrumental music will still be taught in specialized rooms.

The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario localthat represents Peel district's contract elementary school teachers, Peel Elementary Teachers Local (PETL), hascome out against the cuts, arguing that students and teachers need separate spaces to do their best work.

"It's disappointing," said PETL president Steve Dnomme. "When you have your own classroom, it gives the teacher an opportunity to personalize the workspace, to think about the visual aspects."

Dnomme said he's been receiving lots of messages from teachers who are upset by the news.

But Pontes said students are already learning withcarts in some Peel schools, where at-capacity or over-capacity enrolment numbers have never allowed for separate classrooms for French and vocal music.

"I do not accept the suggestion that those programs are of a lesser quality. They are outstanding programs," said Pontes.

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said the ministrywanted to move money that had been "focused on maintaining excess space into direct supports for students."