New TDSB chair faces two monumental challenges

Brown will oversee reopening of schools and finding new director Incoming TDSB chair Alexander Brown will be seeking more funding from the province.

Willowdale school trustee Alexander Brown put his name forward to chair the Toronto District School Board in November 2019 — just a year into his second term on the board for what promised to be a relatively calm year ahead in public education.

He was unable to unseat the incumbent chair ParkdaleHigh Park trustee Robin Pilkey in 2019 — but last Monday, Brown was elected to take charge of the 22-member school board to replace Pilkey after she announced she would step down before the full year of her term had passed.

And as Brown noted in an interview, the year 2020 is anything but a calm one for education in Toronto.

“We’re at one of the most monumental tasks that I’ve seen at our board since I started,” said Brown.

The board is, in fact, facing two monumental tasks.

The board is just weeks away from a provincially-mandated re-opening of schools after they were shuttered as part of the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And it is doing so when its senior leadership at a staff level is in flux.

Earlier this year, former director of education John Malloy left the board to become director of a San Francisco school district in California.

Carlene Jackson stepped in to replace him as interim director, but she was recently hired by the Ontario government to become the province’s comptroller general and deputy minister in the Treasury Board secretariat — and will leave the board in October.

The board, under Brown’s leadership, will likely have to appoint another interim director from within, as it conducts a larger external search for a permanent director — at the same time as it manages the reopening of schools this fall.

“This does throw a wrench into it, but we’ll navigate through it,” he said.

“We’ve got 22 trustees, a great (search) committee and a search firm that will help us. The TDSB is a prestigious place to work, and right now we’re dealing with this monumental challenge.

“I think there are candidates out there. There is a sense that if we don’t rush and get someone we won’t get anyone. And I don’t believe that.”

More pressing will be dealing with the schools’ reopening.

When he was elected board chair, Brown said it was important to continue advocating for additional funding from the province to allow smaller class sizes and make capital improvements to make schools safe.

Brown said he shares Toronto Public Health’s concern that the return-to-school plan doesn’t allow for adequate distancing between students in average-sized classes.

“I think the concern here, and rightfully so, is that it’s not going to be enough space between the kids in our classrooms,” he explained.

“We have a lot of old buildings and a lot of problems with those buildings — a lot of ventilation problems. Just the physical conditions of our buildings makes Toronto unique in the province, because a lot of other places have more modern buildings.”

Brown said the school system might get some breathing room if enough parents decide to keep their children home from school in the fall, and the board is conducting a survey of parents to gauge the number of students who will need to be accommodated.

“Hopefully we’ll see people coming back slowly, when they feel it’s all working, but we’re going to have to be hard-nosed in demanding that the government give us the money and then start working with them.

“I’m looking for that flexibility. Because this is not just about money anymore, it’s about lives, and safety.”