Board’s priorities play role in ministry funding
Staff keep rankings for capital projects
Rankings that school boards assign to projects for which they hope to secure “capital priorities” funding do matter, the province says, but it’s not clear how much weight is carried by the position on the list.
The board’s ranking “is factored in to the ministry’s capital priorities funding decisions,” wrote Gary Wheeler, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, in an email response to questions.
The order of the submission list has been a matter of discussion for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board during its current round of capital funding requests. Boards have until Oct. 31 to submit as many as eight projects to the ministry for consideration.
Because OCDSB staff are coming up with criteria to be used in determining priorities for new schools, renovations, rebuilds and additions — something that’s aimed at making the decision-making process more transparent and less controversial — they recommend the board simply submit eight projects that didn’t receive funding on a list of 16 that the board approved last year.
Staff had raised for discussion the idea that the board may prefer a higher ranking for a new elementary school in Findlay Creek in south Ottawa, however, and a “preliminary reordering” would have bumped the school to third on the list from fifth.
While the potential change was welcomed by people in that community — where a nearby school has been given notice that its lease is to be terminated in 2017 — it frustrated some parents at schools where proposed projects would be pushed down the list.
After hearing “reluctance” to change the rankings, staff are recommending the list remain in the same order as last year, without any changes.
All submissions are initially given equal consideration, Wheeler wrote on Monday.
“Once school boards have submitted their Capital Priority projects, the ministry undertakes a detailed review of each submitted project to determine which projects meet the ministry’s pupil accommodation objectives and merit further funding consideration,” he stated.
“The ministry then funds projects based upon a number of criteria, including project type, board rank, project readiness and timelines and project finances … .”
The staff recommendation is to be considered at the meeting Tuesday, with the board scheduled to make a final decision on Oct. 22. The ministry expects to make a funding announcement in the spring.