Supervised boards could close schools, Ontario education minister says, but rural schools safe

“To be clear, in rural areas, there’s zero chance I would lift a moratorium” on school closings, he added. “I don’t want kids spending longer on the bus than they need to — so that’s certainly off the table.”

The ban on closings — which was a key platform promise of the Ford Conservatives back in 2018 before they were elected with their first of three majorities — was in part because small communities were being hit as boards looked to find savings. At the time, hundreds of schools across the province were under threat. 

While school closings are usually controversial, in more rural areas locals argued that schools are the heart of their communities and that without them, kids also faced long days because of their commutes. 

Calandra’s attention is now on the six boards under supervision — Toronto public and Catholic, Ottawa public, Thames Valley public, Dufferin-Peel Catholic and Near North public.

“I have asked all of the supervisors to provide me a better understanding of what assets they have and how that would impact students in their areas,” said Calandra, who had just returned from a trip to the North Bay-based Near North board, where he himself is serving as the provincial supervisor until he appoints a local one.

That board was taken over after a ministry report on dysfunctional leadership by the trustees and director — and in particular the board’s handling of the delay of a new school in Parry Sound that has left kids learning in a half-demolished building. 

Calandra has taken a number of drastic steps since becoming education minister last March, placing an unprecedented number of boards under provincial control, passing a bill that gives him expanded powers over boards, and ordering a close examination of the standardized testing system and curriculum.

He’s also looking to shake up the system of how boards are governed — possibly doing away with elected trustees in public boards, while keeping them in some form in Catholic and French boards as required under the Charter. 

As well, four of the six directors of education in the provincially supervised boards have left or been fired. 

His decisions have come under some criticism, with accusations that the moves are a power grab and interfere with local democracy.

After the director at the Toronto District School Board was fired, Kathleen Woodcock, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said “this latest intervention from Queen’s Park raises very serious concerns about the erosion of local decision-making in Ontario’s public education system.”

This “level of provincial involvement in local governance is unprecedented,” she also said. “Strong local leadership is essential for communities, and these actions risk undermining public confidence rather than strengthening it.”

But Calandra said that “in both Ottawa and Toronto (public), we just felt that a clean break, a new direction was needed” and that’s why the directors were replaced.

“In Ottawa, the anger and frustration … was enormous” over sweeping changes to school boundaries, Calandra said.

“Parents were so angry at what had been going on in that school board. It just wasn’t about the trustees there. It was about how (parents) were being treated, decisions that were being made.

“It was a very similar situation in Toronto — just a clean break, get things moving forward, new leadership.”

Calandra said there “won’t be a problem” in finding replacements, “good, qualified people who have an interest in putting student achievement first.”

Under the current system, trustees are responsible for hiring directors, and he said that could make them subject to their whims.

“The whole system is just built around an unaccountable, unworkable framework, and that’s what has to be changed,” he said. Governance legislation is set to be introduced after the legislature resumes in late March, he added. 

When asked about Catholic and French boards retaining elected trustees, but public boards not — and how that might be confusing to parents — he said governance changes can be made while still respecting constitutional rights.

While Nova Scotia did away with elected trustees, and it is now looking to return to that system to give parents a voice, Calandra said the difference here is that he is not looking to collapse or merge any boards. 

“That removes people’s local access, and it also makes it more difficult to get access to decision-makers because it is much larger. I have no interest in doing that.”

Calandra has ordered that all boards open up parent support offices, starting with the supervised boards in the new year. 

“I’m actually quite optimistic for students and families,” he added. “It’s about quieting down the system, not focus on things that divide us, but things that bring us together, and on student achievement.”