Toronto’s public school board has fired or disciplined 150 construction and maintenance workers over allegations of fraud and “time theft” as part of a crackdown on wasteful activities.

The Toronto District School Board has also installed GPS tracking devices on all board work vehicles and increased productivity by bundling jobs so a worker focuses on one school instead of doing a series of small jobs at different schools in one day.

“We are holding people to task,” said Angelos Bacopoulos, chief facilities manager for the board, which presides over 630 schools. The firings and “progressive discipline” have taken place over the past 20 months, beginning shortly after a Star investigative series revealed how much the board was losing in wasted maintenance funds.

Another move by the board gives caretakers at schools the right to quickly do small jobs themselves, such as installing pencil sharpeners or putting up a shelf, which Bacopoulos said will bring down costs.

The TDSB told the Star 52 workers were dismissed for fraud or “time theft” (not performing work they said they did), and about 100 disciplined for related issues. No further details were provided.

Two years ago, a Star investigative series revealed Canada’s biggest school board was wasting precious dollars on construction and maintenance. The $143 it cost for a carpenter to attach a pencil sharpener to a wall in a school was one of thousands of examples the Star found. In that case, four screws were used to attach the sharpener and the cost was high because a work order had to be submitted, a carpenter dispatched and just one job was done at the school.

The Star also told stories of a $127 whiteboard that cost $2,442 to install; the $3,000 cost of putting in a new plug in a library; and the $1,123 cost to hang a few pictures at the same school on two days, one week apart.

The Star also reported on cases of unionized workers not showing up at jobs, despite timecards that showed they had. Managers reported they found skilled tradesmen goofing off at Tim Hortons, having a romantic interlude in a car, or delivering flyers for a personal paving company, with plans to use school board equipment.

Jimmy Hazel, who runs the Maintenance and Construction Skilled Trades Council, acknowledged in an email response to questions from the Star that there were problems in the past. He did not consent to an interview, but did respond to the issue of big costs for small jobs like the pencil sharpener example.

“It is widely recognized by everyone that past facilities and maintenance work orders prepared by TDSB management lacked proper details rendering them misleading and/or inaccurate,” Hazel wrote. “Fortunately, trustees have acted with changes to management that has seen improvements to work orders, productivity and efficiency and now prohibit management from sending skilled trades to do minor school repairs that that can easily be done by school caretakers.”

The council of unions maintains a lock on almost all work at the board, thanks to a special agreement that comes up for renegotiation in August. That renegotiation was to have been done just over a year ago, but the Liberal provincial government extended the contract.

Thursday, the Star launches School Work, an online project that allows readers — parents, teachers, students and others — to look at how money is being spent in Toronto’s aging public schools. You will be able to find your school at thestar.com and tell us tell us if you think too much is being spent on some jobs. You can also tell us what jobs need doing to make your school better.

A lot has happened in the past two years, since the Star first broke the story. Bacopoulos, a veteran public servant credited by colleagues with many of the improvements, noted that despite improvements it is still estimated it will take $3.1 billion more to bring Toronto’s 600-plus schools into proper, workable, safe condition. Between 160,000 and 200,000 work orders for school jobs are carried out each year in Toronto at public schools.

He has an annual budget of just under $80 million to tackle it.

“There are many days when I feel like the story of the Little Dutch Boy,” Bacopoulos said.

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Meanwhile, an internal audit at the TDSB — presented to the board this week — reveals there are still problems, although the information reviewed for the audit is roughly two years old. In one instance, a review of a sample of work orders showed that in 100 per cent of cases there was no documented proof that the work had been completed. That’s because board practice has been to dispose, every month, of documents showing work was done. The TDSB states in a response to the audit that they are hoping to implement portable devices that will allow tradespeople and school management to electronically sign off when a job is done.

Toronto schools are among the oldest in the country. Seven schools were built in the 1800s. Most of the rest were built 50 years or more ago.

The workforce of roughly 800 people who perform construction and maintenance jobs include carpenters, electricians, plumbers, sheet metal workers and dozens of other trades. Bacopoulos said the first change he made was to ensure that supervisors had experience with the trade they were supervising.

“Plumbers report to plumbers. If there is a leaky gasket and the job takes a long time, the supervisor can say: ‘Why the heck did you take four hours on that job?’”

The TDSB is now bundling jobs. Two years ago, an electrician (for example) would do a small job in School X, then drive 40 minutes in traffic to School Y to do another small job, and on. Now, work orders are organized so that the electrician would spend a full day at School X.

Bacopoulos said productivity is up, with the average hours of actual work per worker up 19 per cent. He said the number of overtime hours being claimed is down.

The most contentious issue was installing GPS tracking devices on vehicles. A TDSB report states that it was done to “lower fuel and maintenance costs and ensure that vehicles are used appropriately to provide the best possible service.”

A senior board source said the move was primarily related to instances where workers said they were at a school working and were not. In one case, the Star found some unusual charges in early work order data it was sent and raised the question of the high costs. It turned out the work was not done at all, and the worker was dismissed.

The TDSB has also created a priorities list, in concert with school principals. Senior staff meet regularly with principals and determine what the pressing needs are at each school. Thanks to the ice storm this past winter, many schools still have serious roof issues.

The next piece of the puzzle is the agreement between the TDSB and the Maintenance and Construction Skilled Trades Union, the umbrella group that represents all of the many trades represented at the school board.

A consultant report recommended major changes to the deal when it expired 18 months ago. The extension granted to the union by the provincial government expires this August.

“Our senior team will be negotiating a new agreement,” Bacopoulos said.

The Star was unable to determine if there will be any movement on one issue that parents who have contacted the newspaper find infuriating: If parent groups want to get together and perform a project to help the school — say, regrade a hard-packed dirt track stippled with ankle-breaking potholes — they can’t. For now, that work can only be done by Hazel’s team.