A change to the logo of the region’s largest school has raised the ire of a union leader who is decrying the expense while jobs are on the line due to a tight budget.
A change to the logo of the region’s largest school board has raised the ire of a union leader who is decrying the expense while jobs are on the line due to a tight budget.
Mary Henry, president of CUPE Local 4222 that represents 1,600 board employees including secretaries, educational assistants and early childhood educators, is calling out the Thames Valley District school board over the revamped logo that she says will potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Henry questioned “the necessity of a new logo with us being in a deficit right now and constantly losing staff.
“(We want to know what) the rationale is and what the price tag is for changing the logo,” she said.
The Thames Valley board released a report June 4 proposing a list of cuts, including 124 positions, to reduce the board’s projected budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year to $7.6 million from $18 million forecast in February.
Fifty-eight elementary and 24 high school teaching positions are at risk of being eliminated in the board’s preliminary $1.2-billion budget, trustees were told at a board committee meeting last week.
Other proposed cuts include 17 early childhood educator positions as well as jobs in speech and psychological services.
The Thames Valley board’s rebranding plan is designed to “refresh (its) image” amid plans for a multi-year strategic plan, “ensuring the brand remains strong and adaptable to future changes,” communications manager Cheryl Weedmark told trustees in March.
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In addition, rebranding will help the Thames Valley board appeal to “a new and shifting target audience,” a staff report said.
The rebranding strategy is about updating the identity of the board brand by “updating elements such as logo, typography and design style which are essential components of what’s referred to as the brand DNA,” the report said
“These are visible cues that help the public recognize and remember a brand.”
The board’s new logo hasn’t been released, Weedmark said Tuesday.
Henry said the union was told the cost of the board’s new logo would be $30,000.
“We know that is not true,” said Kathy Keery, CUPE Local 4222’s financial officer. “In order to change a logo you’re changing every single school sign, every single documentation that goes out, every badge and uniform.
“It will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and that will be on the taxpayers – that means the children will end up suffering in the end.”
But Weedmark said due to ongoing budget pressures “the new Thames Valley logo was designed in-house at no additional cost to the board.
“All immediate logo changes will be digital and any other logo changes will be made gradually through attrition, as stock is depleted or replaced,” she said. “While the existing logo has been a part of Thames Valley since 1998, it was not designed with accessibility or digital platforms in mind.
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Weedmark added: “Accessibility and inclusivity are legal and moral obligations of the board.”
“Designing Thames Valley’s new logo in-house is the most cost-effective way to bring the board’s identity into the modern digital world,” she said.
The board’s planning and advisory committee is reviewing the board’s preliminary 2024-25 budget at a meeting Tuesday evening.
Trustees are expected to approve the budget at a board meeting on June 25.
Thames Valley is the fourth largest board in Ontario with 84,000 students at 160 schools.
The board has more than 5,500 teachers and 5,000 occasional staff, and about 2,000 support staff.
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