Several Ontario school boards will need to find $350,000 in their budget to pay for the Ford government’s school supervisors.
In June, the province appointed supervisors to five school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, to rein in spending due to “mismanagement,” with Education Minister Paul Calandra zeroing in on their spending, flagging expenses like trips to Italy, late-night meals, watch straps and TV mounts.
The supervisors replaced trustees, who were making an average of $25,000 each a year. Those same supervisors are now charging the school boards upwards of $2,000 a day for a maximum of 3.5 days a week.
Calendra says he stands by the hefty salaries.
“I think it’s an appropriate amount of money given the challenges that all of these boards face,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday. “The reality is I would rather not have supervisors in place at these boards, but these are boards that took massive surpluses that are supposed to be spent in the classroom.”
After telling reporters he doesn’t “pay attention” to what the supervisors are billing, Calandra said he expects them to spend the $350,000 allocated.
“I’m not shy or embarrassed by the fact that there is a budget in place for supervisors to do their work, and I expect them to do i,t and I will hold them accountable,” he said.
Ontario Green Leader Mike Schreiner says it makes no sense to him.
“Our schools can’t afford educational assistants, ECEs, mental health workers, but somehow the government’s going to force them to spend $350,000 on a school supervisor, taking money out of the classroom?”
“If a trustee is misbehaving, you can vote them out in the next election, but you can’t vote out these supervisors,” added Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles.
The appointed supervisors have no background in education, but rather in finance. TDSB supervisor Rohit Gupta once served as a former advisor to Metrolinx and was a senior staffer at Scotia Capital.
“Their biggest qualification is they’re Tory insiders,” quipped interim Liberal leader John Fraser.
The Ford government is fast-tracking several bills, including Bill 33 – The Supporting Children and Students Act – so there will be no opportunity to debate the proposed school board changes. Calandra has previously indicated that once the bill passes, the government will take control of more school boards.
