About Katrina M
Creating parent advocacy in the TDSB and province of Ontario!
Hello! I am the mom of two kids at two different TDSB high schools. For the last 3.5 years, I have been trying to organize other TDSB parents around the need for more school funding.
Last year, I had the honour of serving as co-chair of the Parent Involvement Advisory Committee. I was initially elected to serve as co-rep of Ward 10 (old ward map - University-Rosedale).
My core belief is that we need transparent management and regular realignment of the provincial funding formula, as was recommended explicitly by the Auditor General of Ontario in a 2017 report. The 2025 AG report also recommended that the Ministry work with the school boards to solve "structural underfunding."
Structural underfunding means that the province is not providing sufficient funding to pay for required costs to meet the expectations of the Education Act, Charter Rights, and/or other legislation, like tax law.
For example, our school boards are not provided with enough funding to cover Canada Pension Plan payments for its employees!
As a result, our kids suffer dwindling programs, weak educational materials, burnt out teachers, and insufficient school staff to keep everyone healthy and safe.
Yes, we need increased funding in the immediate term, but we also need a change to the system to ensure that school funding ALWAYS keeps up with inflation and sets goals to expand and improve educational opportunities and resources, rather than reduce it to skeletal programming for the sake of "budget cuts."
This is my highest priority and solving it will require parents from ALL POLITICAL STRIPES to unite around improving the quality of education. Although we can disagree on how to prioritize our attention, I think we can all agree that first and foremost, our kids need to be SAFE at school. Sometimes, scary things happen and parents and students want a police presence. This is understandable and we can't admonish school communities who feel a need for a visible police presence.
That said, research suggests that long-term safety and academic thriving requires an investment in caring adults at school, along with creative opportunities, high expectations, structured, direct instruction, and personal or small group attention for those who need extra academic support. Teachers, of course, form the backbone of our children's school experience, but administrators, office staff, caretakers, tutors and EAs, psychologists, social workers, and CYCs, ALL can contribute to a child's self-assurance, pride in their community, and long term positive attitudes about school. While our kids are at school, all of the caring adults on campus serve as their temporary caregivers. This is why I wanted to include this word in the name of my coalition. It takes a village, and everyone in the school community is welcome!
I'd love to grow a network of parent and school community leaders around the city, but this requires a lot of time. I am a full-time PhD student presently researching and writing my dissertation. I use this page as my personal blog and organizing platform. I unfortunately am not independently wealthy. If you have the means to "buy me a coffee" through this site please feel free! If not, no worries at all, I'm really glad to be in touch with you! I'd also be happy to grab a real-life coffee with you!
You can email me at:
to r o n t o S C c o a l i t i o n {at} g m a i l {dot} c o m
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