By CYNTHIA REASON
June 25, 2009 1:41 PM
INSIDE TORONTO
Parents are threatening a class-action lawsuit following a controversial decision by the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to cut the Arrowsmith program from their budget during a tearful and explosive meeting Wednesday night.
As the fate of the "miracle program" for learning disabled children was read by the beleaguered board's supervision team, parents jumped from their seats with shouted accusations of "liar," and ousted trustees took to their Blackberries to email the Minister of Education with messages of dissent.
"To suggest there's been a strengthening of public trust at the end of this process would be grossly inaccurate. It's just 36 hours until the end of the school year and we're just now learning the fate of our children?" a bewildered Clint Harder asked following the announcement.
"You're condemning my daughter to a life of decreased expectations, and that's unacceptable."
Harder's nine-year-old daughter Paige, a third grader at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Scarborough, is currently one of 64 TCDSB students who are enrolled in the Arrowsmith program at seven schools across the board.
Diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities, Paige's parents said she's made greater strides in the two years she's been enrolled in Arrowsmith than in any of the other programs they've tried.
The effectiveness of Arrowsmith over other learning disabled (LD) programs offered by Toronto's school boards, parents argue, is that it provides children with the cognitive tools and training necessary to effectively "fix" or "rewire" their brains, thereby curing them of their disability. More traditional forms of LD programs simply teach children how to work around or manage their symptoms and have not worked for their children, parents testified.
But in his explanation of the decision not to renew Arrowsmith, which costs the board approximately $175,000 a year in licensing fees, provincially-appointed associate supervisor Norm Forma cited a lack of evidence that Arrowsmith does indeed produce more successful results than other LD programming used within the TCDSB.
"To date, we have not been made aware of any comparative research studies. The only comparative data is from a board analysis which suggests that the TCDSB's own program supports have a greater impact on measures of performance than Arrowsmith," he said.
Forma argued the majority of Arrowsmith families have only limited comparative experience with the TCDSB's other LD supports. Of the 64 enrolled in the program, Forma said 30 per cent had come from outside the system and a further 42 per cent had entered the program directly from regular placements in TCDSB classrooms - so the majority of Arrowsmith participants have had no first-hand experience with the programs offered to the other 5,000 students identified as learning disabled within the board.
Those suggestions did not go over well with either parents or trustees in the crowd.
"These are the most vulnerable children in the board that you're throwing to the wolves tonight. We're not going to go away quietly - this is a miscarriage of justice," Harder said.
Citing the board's fiduciary responsibility to inform parents of decisions impacting their children in a timely manner, several parents hinted at the possibility of pursuing legal action due to the late notice of the program's cancellation.
"We were told in March that the Arrowsmith program was going to be renewed for two years, but that no new students would be accepted. You lied!" Louis Del Grande, a concerned grandparent yelled.
"All you had to say three to six months ago is that you were going to cancel the program. We wouldn't have liked the news any more then than we do now, but at least we could have prepared and gotten our children placed (at one of the private schools that offer Arrowsmith). Now it's too late."
Former board chair and Ward 9 Trustee Catherine LeBlanc-Miller quickly took to her Blackberry to send a succinct, albeit direct, message to Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne to express her disdain with the budget as soon the final verdict had been read.
Her message simply read: "Tcdsb budget: What a sham! What a shame!"
Likewise-minded, York Trustee Rob Davis objected to the fact that the $910.5 million budget proposal hadn't been amended "one iota" from the time it was tabled in May to the time it was approved Wednesday night.
"I've never seen a budget on the table that hasn't been amended before approval - ever - and I've been on a lot of boards," he said. "It's the height of arrogance, and it just goes to show that (the supervision team) was not listening to parents and ratepayers."
Meanwhile, Scarborough/North York Trustee John Del Grande, who last week distributed an open letter deriding the supervisory team for their handling of the Arrowsmith Program and suggesting cost-sharing or cost-recovery models to keep it alive, had one last suggestion after the program was cut - this time for parents.
"As a trustee of this board, it pains me to say this, but I suggest you parents take your children, go across the street to 5050 Yonge Street, go to the public board, sign up and tell them you're willing to cost-share Arrowsmith."
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