What can trustees even do anymore? Why would anyone run? Inside a changing role, and why some still see hope

It’s left some wondering if there’s any point in running for the position, especially in the eight boards where the province has swooped in and taken control. 

“I’m really concerned that (the bill) will change us from being collaborative partners with senior staff to being just also-rans in the relationship,” said Toronto District School Board trustee Dan MacLean, who is having second thoughts about standing for re-election in this fall’s municipal vote.

“I can effectively advocate for students and families because of the relationships with senior staff that I have,” added the Etobicoke Centre representative. “I don’t envision that will be the same going forward … It will still be really important to support parents, but the role you play will be so minor that I’m not sure staff will find it necessary to partner with you in the same manner, and I think that will make it really hard to effectively advocate for students and families.”

While he hasn’t ruled out running, he plans to “take some time and try to figure out where the dust settles.”

Under the Putting Student Achievement First Act (Bill 101), recently introduced by Education Minister Paul Calandra, no board can have more than 12 trustees — which means the Toronto public board will be almost halved from the current 22 — and their honoraria are cut to a maximum of $10,000 with limits on discretionary spending. They will hire the newly created chief executive officer (CEO) position, but not the new chief education officer, and cannot terminate the CEO without the minister’s permission. 

Once passed, the bill will remove trustee organizations as the main bargaining group for provincial contract talks, and would forbid board staff and trustees from speaking publicly in their role on any political, non-school-related issues. 

For Calandra, the new rules allow trustees “to do what they keep telling me that they want to do, it allows them to keep doing what the opposition says is the most important role of a trustee — to represent the community and bring that voice to the board. But it strips them away of much of everything else that they do that would cause division within our school system.”

The new CEO will devise the budget, and trustees can make suggestions and pass it, but if they choose not to, the minister makes the final call.

“The changes to how boards are governed and the reduction in the role of a trustee to a much less divisive role make things a lot clearer, and I know will put the focus back on student achievement,” Calandra said after introducing the bill.

While Calandra had initially threatened to get rid of all English public trustees — saying Catholic and French needed to remain for constitutional reasons — he instead diminished their roles. Catholic trustees will retain authority around denominational issues; French board trustees are unaffected.

For former Toronto Catholic board chair Markus de Domenico, “what happened in Bill 101, in an odd way, it’s a victory for the parent voice … I’m not happy about (the bill), but I believe the province’s plan a year ago was to get rid of every trustee in the province, take control of the boards, and parents … spoke out. They realized that the appointed supervisor was not responding … was just not going to cut it, and the role of trustee suddenly became more relevant than ever — that voice to assist parents and direct them through what can be a very large and confusing bureaucracy.”

Plus, he added, “with all due respect, I’m not sure they thought this thing through. Because having a trustee … is a pretty good buffer for the government.”

Disability rights activist and retired lawyer David Lepofsky slammed the “power grab” and “creation of a blizzard of bureaucracy.”

“You need a lawyer, and a lot of years, to try to figure out what the heck the role of the trustees is,” he told the Star’s Isabel Teotonio, amid worries it would mean less assistance for parents of special needs children when issues arise.

While the province has mandated parent support offices in every board as of this fall New Democrat MPP Chandra Pasma called them “a convenient talking point for the minister, but (in Ottawa, where the public board already has one) it hasn’t reduced the number of calls that are coming to my office.”

For Ontario families “who need somebody to pick up the phone and advocate for them, it absolutely matters that there’s still a trustee for them,” said Pasma, her party’s education critic.

For Cathy Abraham, a trustee in the Kawartha-Pine Ridge public board and former president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, the revamp is “not the worst of scenarios … we’re still going to be there, and it’s not going to stop trustees from doing the work that we’ve always done, making sure that we advocate for our communities, telling our administration what our communities need and why, telling the ministry what we need and why.”

However, with CEO to be the top position at boards, having a financial but not necessarily education background, “what they have actually done is put us all under quasi-supervision.”

While trustees hire the CEO, the CEO then hires the chief education officer — referred to as the CEdO — “and you’re looking for somebody who reflects what you believe about education, and reflect your community’s needs, and we don’t have a say in that,” Abraham added.

While the CEO will be in charge of finances as is expected to have experience in that sector, the CEdO will oversee all aspects of teaching and learning, and needs to be a certified teacher.

A group of Ontario parents who sit on their school board parent involvement committees have drafted a response to the bill, saying “we wish for (trustees) to have the ability to advocate for students in a meaningful way” and that local voters have a say in he fate of school lands or outdoor education centres.

While Calandra has said he’ll appoint trustees if there are no candidates in an area, de Domenico said he hopes that doesn’t happen.

The role, he believes, “is worth it … if we care about the students, then we need to encourage people who are committed, and strong and ready to speak up about what is needed for kids in the system to get a great education, to step up and run.”