Ontario school boards need to “modify or change” and the government is taking steps to force more accountability, says Education Minister Paul Calandra.
“I have said this since the day that I was sworn into the file, that school boards should be put on notice: If you don’t do this, if you don’t start putting parents, teachers and students first, then I will do it for you, because that is what people expect,” Calandra said Tuesday in the legislature.
Calandra again took a hard line regarding school boards, after being asked about a recent report that detailed how often children with disabilities are being restrained or excluded from classrooms, and later about unsuccessful moves by the Waterloo Catholic board to ban the Pride flag.
“We have to modify or change the way school boards react and behave,” Calandra said. “The Ministry of Education needs to ensure that there’s a more unified level of response from our school boards. Perhaps we’ve given too much autonomy to school boards and they are making decisions that are not always in the best interests of students, parents and teachers.”
Just last week, Calandra ordered financial probes at a handful of boards — including the Toronto public and Catholic — and announced the Thames Valley District School Board would be run by a provincial supervisor.
But NDP Leader Marit Stiles, a former school trustee, said most challenges tie back to inadequate funding and claimed the government is targeting boards as a distraction.
Despite spending more on education each year, about $29 billion, that amount has not kept up with inflation or the real costs boards face, and Stiles said that overall, per-student funding has decreased by $1,500 under the Ford government.
“You should know that every school board in the province is running a deficit in special education,” Stiles said. “They’re spending more than they’re getting from this government. Not only has the government failed to provide guidance for schools on these issues — seclusion, restraints, exclusion — but there’s also no provincial data being tracked. Instead, school boards are creating and implementing their own policies.”
Green MPP Aislinn Clancy noted the controversies at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, where some trustees “have been trying to ban” the rainbow pride flag.
“Unfortunately, these hateful actions are just the tip of the iceberg at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board,” she told the legislature, including a recent $200,000 bill for legal fees related to code-of-conduct issues among trustees.
“This style of American politics has no place in Ontario school boards,” she said.
Calandra agreed, adding that “when school boards get into politics, when the classroom becomes political, it is the students who suffer.”
Patrick Etmanski, president of the local Catholic teachers union, said trustees are wading into issues — such as flag raising, or what books school libraries are allowed to stock — that are beyond their mandate.
“They spent $200,000 in the last year on lawyer bills for internal bickering,” Etmanski said. “It’s incredible.”
Both the Toronto boards are running large deficits, and the Thames Valley board landed in hot water after administrators took a pricey retreat at the former SkyDome hotel in Toronto. The Brant Catholic board also came under fire after four trustees took a $150,000 trip to Italy to purchase artwork for schools.
Calandra has named Paul Boniferro to run the Thames Valley board, a veteran labour and employment lawyer.
