What the Ford government’s education reform means for boards under supervision

of Ford’s government The decision to keep long-term trustees in place — albeit with limited powers — will not mean the end of oversight at eight Ontario school boards, the education minister says.

But despite maintaining direct control of some of the province’s largest school boards, Paul Calandra said people should stand for election to take their place if and when he ends his oversight of the boards.

If the candidates decide not to run, the minister said on Monday, he will choose people to fill the vacancies.

“If people choose not to run for that position and want to wait until we return the oversight boards to trustees, that’s fine,” he said. “The Ministry has the statutory powers to fill those vacancies.”

Monday, Kalandra unveiled his long-awaited reforms in educationkeeping trustees in place on public, Catholic, and French boards, but limiting their salaries, expenses, and say over the board’s annual budget.

The education minister said the new changes would not lead to an immediate end to oversight, with government appointees still leading eight boards, including Toronto Public, Toronto Catholic, Ottawa-Carleton, Peel Public and Dufferin-Peel Catholic.

“Those boards will remain under supervision for as long as it takes to get them back on track,” Calandra told reporters.

Elections for new trustees will be held in October, with the Toronto public alone seeing a reduction in the number of trustees on its board.

Even for boards that are under supervision, votes will be cast for trustees. Those who win elections in overseen jobs will not receive any payment or responsibility until the government decides to end oversight.

Jill Promoli, an elected school board trustee with the Peel District School Board, said that over the course of the provincial takeover, elected officials have heard very little from the Education Minister directly.

“I have had no communication from the Minister of Education, absolutely nothing. So it does not seem that there is any respect from this minister for the chosen role of trustee”, said Promoli.

The PDSB trustee was first elected in 2022, at a time when its board was under scrutiny following investigations into racism and discrimination in early 2020.

“That’s also the funny thing, putting boards under surveillance is not a new thing,” she said.

“The Peel District School Board was under oversight, but administrators were not out of their roles. They had a reduced role, but they were still there. They were still able to attend meetings. They were supporting their community. And so when I was elected, I was elected to a board under oversight.”

The changes Calandra has proposed would reduce the trustee’s responsibility over key financial decisions, something he said would “potentially” pave the way for the end of oversight.

“But, as I said, there are many challenges in each of the supervisory boards, for many different reasons, not only financially,” he added.

“A board you saw being wrangled by trustees — more than one board — where the infighting of the trustees basically cost millions of dollars, in other cases, they were ignoring the conflict of interest issues. They’re under scrutiny for a number of reasons.”

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