Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jan 2005
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Louise Brown, Education Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

USER FEES SLASHED AT SCHOOLS

Catholic Board Reduces Cost Of After-Hours Use
Community Workers Say Move Will Help Teens

Youth worker Wayne Lewis will have more money -- thousands of dollars
more -- to help teens in Toronto's troubled Rexdale neighbourhood stay
out of drugs and crime now that he doesn't have to pay fees for the
schools they use.

"We had to spend sometimes the equivalent of a small down payment on a
house -- up to $15,000 -- just to book school space through the year
to run our programs," said Lewis.

Yesterday, the Toronto Catholic District School Board scrapped
weeknight permit fees at seven schools in low-income areas and
substantially reduced fees at the rest of its 202 schools. The costs
will be picked up instead by Queen's Park, as part of a $20 million
program to help school boards pay for after-hours caretakers and heating.

The cost of renting a gym, for instance, is now $10 on weekdays and $5
on weekends, down from $25; a classroom rental is $2 instead of $10.
The fee changes are retroactive to September; groups that paid higher
fees in the interim will get refunds.

"Now we'll have more money to keep kids off the 6 o'clock news for the
wrong reasons," said Lewis, whose charitable program Hopes Are High
runs after-school homework clubs, sports teams and leadership programs
at Marian Academy, a high school in Etobicoke.

Ontario has given $826,645 to Toronto's Catholic board to lower or
eliminate user fees.

"We want to return Ontario schools to their rightful role as the hub
of the community, by opening their doors after hours and making them
affordable and accessible," said MPP Jim Bradley, minister of tourism
and recreation yesterday.

For decades, non-profit groups across Ontario were able to use school
pools, gyms, fields and classrooms for a nominal fee, but former
premier Mike Harris brought in a new funding formula that gave schools
no money for after-hours programs.

Instead, boards had no choice but to pass on the cost of after-hours
use, which priced many community programs beyond the reach of the
public. According to the government, Ontario school boards collected
more than $29 million in rental fees in 2003-04, a 138 per cent
increase over the $12.2 million in fees they collected in 1998-99.

Community workers hailed the move to cut fees yesterday.

Sports co-ordinator Peter Jones, for instance, will be able to lower
fees for the 1,000 teens, many of them from working-class families,
who play on the Scarborough Basketball Association community teams.
Jones said team fees for gym use had jumped to $500 from $100, "posing
a tremendous burden on lower-income families. This news today is
tremendous."

Bradley unveiled details of the grant yesterday at Scarborough's St.
Gabriel Lalemant Catholic School in the high-needs Malvern
neighbourhood. The government is finalizing a similar deal with the
Toronto District School Board, he said, and has signed deals already
with 28 other school boards.
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MAP posted-by: Derek