Community centres. Church halls. And library spaces.
That is where longtime trustee Maria Rizzo plans to start holding public meetings for parents — meetings that aren’t happening in the city’s Catholic board, given that the board, like its public counterpart, is under provincial supervision.
“I’m going to have meetings, in the community, in community spaces, with an agenda and invite delegates and parents to speak, and livestream it,” said Rizzo, who was re-elected Monday to the Toronto Catholic District School Board in North York’s Ward 5.
Allowing the public to speak or watch proceedings online is what normally happens at committee and board meetings — but not at the eight boards now under provincial supervision, where trustees have been sidelined, and most meetings paused. The province took control of the boards for reasons that it said include financial mismanagement and unsustainable deficits.
Rizzo is hoping her fellow trustees support the idea of holding their “pseudo-board” meetings in different spots across the city, but will arrange them for her own community regardless.
“Whether (Education Minister Paul) Calandra likes it or not, he can’t stop people from speaking out in public places about school issues,” Rizzo told the Star. “We can go into churches — we don’t have to be in schools to do this.
“The whole point is no more closed doors, no buried concerns, because students and families need to be heard — and I’m going to include the student trustees.”
The boards under supervision are Toronto’s public and Catholic, Ottawa-Carleton, Peel’s public and Catholic, Thames Valley, Near North and York Catholic, and newly elected trustees in some of them are already having quiet conversations about how to ensure they can play some role with parents, either meeting with one another or the public.
Some parents in the supervised boards are now even trying to organize their own symbolic swearing-in ceremony for trustees, after the Ministry of Education was vague about when the newly elected boards would do so.
Rizzo says, with a supervisor making most decisions at the Toronto Catholic board, “there’s got to be some kind of accountability, some kind of transparency and issues parents want to speak to.”
She’s even thinking of hosting a gathering at her home to give the incumbent trustees a chance to meet their newly elected colleagues.
Emma Testani, Calandra’s press secretary, told the Star in a statement that trustees “remain fully able” to “represent parents, protect public education and ensure students receive the education they deserve,” and “the suggestion that holding school boards accountable (through supervision) somehow prevents elected trustees from representing parents and their communities is categorically false.”
She said the province has introduced legislative changes that include “safeguards in place to prevent the kind of dysfunction that has plagued some school boards and threatened critical supports for students.
“We have already seen why stronger oversight is necessary, with eight school boards placed under provincial supervision because of serious financial mismanagement and governance concerns. These cases demonstrate the need for stronger accountability to protect students and taxpayers.”
Holly Benoit, whose daughters attend a Catholic elementary school, calls Rizzo’s idea of holding meetings in community spaces “a wonderful opportunity … Parents don’t have a real voice. Who do we go to?”
It’s a sentiment that Trustee Markus de Domenico, re-elected in Etobicoke’s Ward 2, has heard often, which is why he backs Rizzo’s idea.
“In this campaign, one of the messages that I got loud and clear was, ‘Why are we not able to speak publicly? Why are we not able to meet publicly and push for certain issues that we consider to be very important?’ … It was a big issue with parents.”
So “anything that can facilitate that, I would be happy to attend and share my time with parents,” he said, noting in-person meetings would complement his regular communication with parents, many of whom call him for advice on how to navigate the education system.
Trustee Nancy Crawford, acclaimed in Scarborough’s Ward 12, said she is “happy to support and explore the viability of such a measure.”
One challenge, she said, would be getting the word out about public meetings, given the restrictions trustees face under provincial supervision. While parents still call trustees on their personal phones seeking advice, trustees are prohibited from engaging with parents in their official capacity.
Trustee Frank D’Amico, acclaimed in York’s Ward 6, said Rizzo’s idea is good in theory, but cautions that organizing such meetings could raise code-of-conduct concerns.
He said there’s a difference between trustees attending a community-organized event and organizing public meetings themselves while under supervision.
“I’d have to check to see if I’m breaking any codes of conduct, because that might be an issue — and you could lose your seat,” he said. “So, you should be very careful, especially now. It’s a bad time to be rattling your sabre. I would wait until things cool off.”
Sara Blumenstein, an organizer with the Toronto Education Advocacy Network, said parents have discussed holding a symbolic swearing-in ceremony to underscore the importance of elected trustees.
“We voted for our trustees, we want them reinstated,” she said.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles, a former Toronto public trustee, said those elected to school boards “deserve to be able to fulfil that role, and I think it’s shameful that the minister would be threatening not to swear them in. It’s a slight — and it’s also a slight to the voters.”
She supports the idea of trustees arranging their own meetings or taking part in an alternative, off-site swearing-in.
Calandra “doesn’t understand how important (locally elected trustees) are to the people of Ontario,” she told the Star. “Parents, students, communities are saying very loudly and very clearly that this matters to them; they want those folks fighting for their kids. They don’t feel represented anymore by his government because his government has put so many boards under supervision, and they feel the impact in classrooms.”
