Lawrence Park’s Blythwood Junior Public School is among 14 Toronto schools that Toronto District School Board (TDSB) data shows have repair backlogs so extensive that they would cost more to repair than to completely rebuild.

According to TDSB data, Blythwood has a repair backlog of $8.1 million, resulting in a facility condition index (FCI) of 101 per cent. FCI is the percentage obtained by dividing the cost of repairs by the cost of providing a replacement school.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Rachel Chernos Lin, TDSB trustee for Ward 11–Don Valley West, which includes Blythwood.

Chernos Lin said that the TDSB has 64 schools that are more than 95 years old, and 50 per cent of the schools are more than 60.

“That means they’ve got aging building components, and they require either major repairs or replacement, and we haven’t been funded adequately over the years to keep pace with the aging infrastructure,” she said.

Chernos Lin explained that in the last few years the TDSB has received an average of $290 million to deal with the repair backlog, which she said does not go far for a board with just under 600 schools and a backlog of repairs estimated to be $3.5 billion.

She questioned a provincial funding system that allows school boards to apply for funding for 10 capital projects a year regardless of the school board’s size, as well as an Ontario-wide regulation stipulating that economic development charges (EDC), which could ease the repair burden, can only be used to purchase land for future schools but not to renovate existing ones.

The TDSB has been deemed ineligible to collect EDCs for new schools due to having excess capacity in some parts of the city, a formula that ignores the rapid intensification in certain areas.

Krista Wylie of Fix Our Schools, a campaign which advocates for increased funding for school repair and maintenance, is not surprised by the 101 per cent FCI statistic.

“It’s a great way to look at the data available and make people pause and give thought to how ridiculous that is,” said Wylie.

“It’s ridiculous that we, as a society, have allowed the buildings where our kids spend their days to deteriorate to this point,” she said.

Wylie said, however, that the headline-grabbing statistic ignores the fact that older schools were built with more generous specifications than any likely rebuilds, saying the province now funds bare bones school buildings.

She said simply replacing a school would also ignore any historical importance of the building.

“Another consideration for a school board would be the logistics of moving children while they’re rebuilding,” said Wylie.

“That’s obviously a huge challenge for a community to keep educating their children within reasonable proximity in a good environment while they’re rebuilding a school,” she said.

Chernos Lin agreed that the statistic does not mean new schools are on the way.

“The funding isn’t there and the funding model doesn’t really allow us to do that,” said Chernos Lin.

She said that planned repairs at Blythwood include the replacement of a hockey pad, a kindergarten yard enhancement and a boiler replacement.

She said all exterior windows that are still single glazed are due to be replaced, and that the roof will be redone where it’s needed in 2021 and 2022.

“When I look at a school like Blythwood, there’s some good bones in it and it has a beautiful facade,” said Chernos Lin.

“But it does need some major repairs and that’s the reality we’re dealing with.”