Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra says the province has taken control of four more school boards.
He says 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.
Calandra says the moves come after a recommendation following financial investigations of the boards showed growing deficits, depletion of reserves and ongoing mismanagement.
“These boards have had multiple opportunities to address their structural financial issues, and time and again they have failed to do so,” Calandra told reporters Friday. “We are appointing supervisors with a clear mandate to get these boards back on track.”
Calandra says the boards have failed parents and students, and he’s sending a message.
“All school boards across the province should be put on notice, even those that are running a surplus,” he said.
“Where decision-making does not prioritize student success, where it does not prioritize resources for teachers in the classroom, I will not hesitate to step in and redirect that funding back into the classroom.”
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.”
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.
While the province blames school boards for financial mismanagement, many educators and opposition leaders have been sounding the alarm this spring over a lack of government spending on education.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) says the province’s takeover is a power grab, and boards haven’t been properly funded for years.
“School boards are being forced to do more with less,” the OSSTF said in a social media post. “Since 2018, the Ford government has taken more than $6 billion out of the classroom and funding has fallen FAR behind inflation.”
Ontario defends school board audits amid opposition claims of underfunding
The province set aside $30.3 billion for education in this year’s budget, calling it a record investment. But a report last year from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that Ontario’s core education funding has dropped by $1,500 per student since 2018, a figure the government has disputed.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles took to social media Friday to say the bigger issue is how the province spends its money.
“What our schools need is investments, not absolute control,” she said. “We’ve seen massive cuts since 2018, the government repeatedly targeting educators and education workers, and zero regard for the kids in our classrooms.”
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.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, meanwhile, is “at the brink of bankruptcy,” Calandra said.
Calandra also announced Friday that he has paused several pending curriculum changes for boards in order to bring more consistency and to give teachers more time to prepare.
