London, Ont. – The Thames Valley District School Board’s (TVDSB) plan to close down centralized warehousing services, cut distribution services and eliminate technical services provided to schools and front-line staff will have a serious impact on education services and curriculum for staff and students, warns the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“Slashing vital services on the backs of staff and students is not delivering quality education,” said Gloria Scoyne, president of CUPE 4222. “The Thames Valley Board must show true leadership and stop downloading centralized school board services to individual schools.”
TVDSB’s plan to cut vital services that schools, staff and students have relied on will:
• Lower the quality of education services: reducing repair and pick-up/delivery services of a/v and computer equipments, from twice a week to four times a year, will delay, postpone and perhaps cancel important school programs and functions
• Lead to inefficiencies like the duplication of central purchasing services that will now be done in every school and the loss of savings achieved by bulk purchases made through a central and large school board like Thames Valley
• Create storage issues for heavy equipment and teaching tools due to the closure of the central warehouse, and raise health and safety concerns
Scoyne, representing over 1300 Thames Valley School Board workers, will detail how these cuts will affect the delivery of education at the TVDSB staff and public meeting on June 2, at 4:00 pm, at the TVDSB Education Centre, 1250 Dundas Street West in London. Scoyne will be available to the media for interviews after her presentation.
“We will be urging this board to stop these cuts,” says Scoyne. “Scaling back the central board’s responsibilities is not the right way to manage a big school board like Thames Valley.” TVDSB covers over 7,000 square kilometres, including the City of London, the Counties of Elgin, Middlesex and Oxford. The plan to eliminate central warehousing services and reduce distribution services will affect all 195 schools under Thames Valley, adult learning centres, public libraries and many community agencies such as Pioneer Village, Block Parent, United Way, Children’s Museum, Special Olympics and others.
-30-
For further information, please contact:
Gloria Scoyne, CUPE 4222 President, 519-494-0215
Darcie Buchenauer, CUPE National Representative, 519-433-1753
James Chai, CUPE Communications, 416-292-3999
COPE491/phw