It has been more than seven months since Ontario’s Education Minister Paul Calandra placed four school boards under direct provincial control, sidelining trustees. The action was taken because of alleged misspending of funds by trustees and board officials, including using funds for a trip abroad to buy art for a new school and sending staff to expensive conferences. Since then, three additional school boards have been placed under direct provincial control. The most recent occurred last week, when the Peel District School Board was taken over, in part, to stop a plan to lay off teachers to address a structural deficit. The York Catholic District School Board officials have fewer than two weeks to prove that they too should not be taken over by the province.
Calandra’s actions and those of his department will place about 10 per cent of the province’s school boards under direct control, but they account for more than 660,000 students, representing more than one-quarter of the 2.1 million students in Ontario’s public education system.
Last fall, Calandra said he was looking at options on how to move forward, and that would likely include reform of elected school board trustees at all Ontario school boards. Now, in 2026, one, possibly two, more school boards are under direct control. Still, no plan has been announced. It is widely expected that elected trustees will be eliminated in any reform that is proposed, but the blame for misspending and systemic deficits at some boards cannot be put solely on trustees.
For decades, elected school board officials have held little power within school board structures. Policies are set by the Ministry of Education, implemented by bureaucrats within school boards, and trustees often serve as a rubber stamp. Elected officials have limited options during budget deliberations, but without the power to raise money themselves through taxation, only additional provincial funding, or cuts to programs can be used to address any systemic financial issues.
If Calandra, and by extension the Ford government, wish to use school board trustees as convenient targets for blame, then announcing a plan to remove trustees should be straightforward. Quebec did this via Bill 40 in 2020, eliminating not only elected trustees but also school boards – simplifying ministry control and centralizing power.
Ontario is likely facing change that falls in the middle between doing nothing and the sweeping reforms undertaken by the François Legault government in Quebec for reforming administration of schools and school boards. Regardless of what the plan will be, after more than seven months of inaction, rhetoric, and finger-pointing by Education Minister Paul Calandra, he is reaching a deadline. Trustee nominations open May 1, the minister must show how he intends to proceed.
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