Ontario taking control of 4 school boards, including TDSB and TCDSB, due to 'mismanagement'

Article content

Ontario has taken control of four more school boards due to “mismanagement,” the education minister announced Friday while saying it’s time for a broader rethink of board governance.

The province has appointed supervisors to the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board, Paul Calandra announced on what is the last day of school in many boards across the province.

“Recent financial investigations have showed that these boards are running unsustainable deficits despite receiving similar, stable funding as other boards across the province,” Calandra said.

“These boards have had multiple opportunities to address their structural financial issues, and time and again, they have failed to do so. Parents and educators expect and deserve a school system where spending decisions put students first. When school boards fail to meet that basic obligation, it is my duty as minister of education to act.”

In his little more than three months in the portfolio, Calandra has come out swinging against boards — having now taken control of five — and signalled Friday there is likely much more to come.

“I think a broader rethink of the governance structure of boards is required,” he said. “This is an important first step, but it is certainly part of my thinking over the next little bit as well.”

Trustees should be focusing on their core mandate, he said, but the Ministry of Education also needs to look at its own structures. Too much decision-making has been decentralized over the last few decades, Calandra said, and the ministry should be providing “clear, concise rules” on how money is spent, and what trustees and boards of education do.

This is not just about boards that are running deficits, Calandra said, pointing to the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board, which was the first board he put under supervision.

That came after an investigation found four school trustees racked up a $190,000 bill on a trip to Italy to buy art for new schools.

The government said the TDSB has rejected nearly half of the cost-saving measures management has recommended over the past two years and the board relies heavily on proceeds from asset sales to balance its books.

The Toronto Catholic board tripled its in-year deficit compared to last year, the government said. The Ottawa board has “completely depleted its reserves, incurred an accumulated deficit,” and plans to use money from asset sales to balance, the government wrote in a press release.

Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, meanwhile, is “at the brink of bankruptcy,” Calandra said.

The boards themselves declined to comment.

NDP education critic Chandra Pasma wrote in a statement that the education system needs more funding, not more centralized control.

“What the children of this province really need is investments in their future, not power grabs and political games,” she wrote.

“Minister Calandra and the Progressive Conservatives are using this as an opportunity to hand out partisan appointments to individuals with no background in education and no interest in the future of our kids.”

The supervisor for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic board is former Progressive Conservative member of provincial parliament Rick Byers, who has a background in finance and auditing. The supervisor for the Toronto public board worked for the federal Conservative government nearly two decades ago and the government describes him as a “highly accomplished public policy and finance professional.”

Calandra also announced Friday that he has paused several pending curriculum changes in order to bring more consistency and to give teachers more time to prepare.

A new kindergarten curriculum with a focus on literacy, math and STEM was set to start this fall, as were changes to the history curriculum for Grades 7, 8 and 10. Teachers had previously complained about the timing of new curriculum announcements and rollouts, and the union representing high school teachers said Friday this pause is welcome.

“The process has been rushed, with little meaningful consultation with the teachers and education workers expected to deliver it,” Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president-elect Martha Hradowy wrote in a statement.

“(The union) is looking to work with the government to get this right — to ensure students benefit from a curriculum that is thoughtful, well-supported, and built with frontline expertise.”