School closures product of  crazy  Harris numbers game:

Schools must be closed as a result of new provincial rules about operating and capital costs.  The new rules set capacity standards for schools and dictate how much money each board will receive for operating costs (heating, lighting, cleaning), serious  repairs (new roofs  and boilers) and new schools. To establish the loading capacity of each school, the provincial rule states that there will be 25 children in each classroom (22 kids for secondary schools). The rules stipulate that each  of the following rooms are deemed to hold a class of 25 (or 22) students  at all times: the art  room, computer studies and family studies rooms, the gymnasium, science lab, lunchroom, music room and theatre arts room. All rooms are understood to be at 100-per-cent occupancy at all  times.   Real life never intrudes. Each space is always full -- the music room never has down periods when it might be empty, there's never a period when students are not attending class in the lunchroom, and classes are never smaller than 25. The rules say there is far too much unused space. The province provides no money for this surplus or unused space. The rules provide no money for new schools even where there is an increase in school age population, no money to replace older schools even though they only  have a 50-year lifespan.  Ajax mayor Steve Parish notes that  portables are considered good classrooms under these rules.  .............................................................  (Info clipped from John Sewell's column)

 

--Harriscide--
The Harris Kremlin -- Inside Ontario's revolutionary politburo-  by Guy Crittenden
The OFL on how Harris killed employment
 Scrapbook of the Harris Cuts
The Evil Tower of Tory Power
North Bay Days of Action