Plan for changes to role of trustees in Ontario coming early next year: minister

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said Friday he will make a final decision early in the new year on what changes to make to the role of trustees in the school system, but he signalled he is inclined to largely eliminate it.

Speaking at a school in Ottawa, where he announced spending of $162 million to build two new schools and expand one, Calandra said while he has not yet presented a plan to cabinet for approval, he is unconvinced of the need for trustees.

“There is nothing so far that leads me to believe … that a $43-billion Ministry of Education budget should be delivered by trustees across the province of Ontario,” he said. 

“So there’s nothing yet that has changed my mind on that course.”

When Calandra first started floating the idea of changes to school board governance not long after being appointed education minister earlier this year, he said he would communicate his plan by the end of this year.

Now he says that will be a bit delayed because he is closely examining Charter and constitutional issues as they relate to Catholic and French education rights.

Trustees in those boards will always have a role in denominational issues, Calandra said, but the English public system is another matter.

“The English public trustees have no Constitutional or Charter guarantees,” he said. “So I could strike a pen tomorrow and rid myself of all of them in one fell swoop, if I wanted to.”

Calandra said there will be some changes and they will be announced early in the new year, but they will not include closing or amalgamating school boards, merging the public and Catholic systems, or introducing charter schools.

NDP education critic Chandra Pasma said Calandra’s comments show “utter contempt for the rights of parents and local communities to have a say in our schools.”

“Suggesting that he can wipe out elected trustees with the stroke of a pen is deeply disrespectful and undermines democratic, community-based decision-making in education,” she wrote in a statement.

Calandra said trustees may no longer be the best way of addressing parents’ needs, noting a large number of acclamations and low election engagement.

According to data compiled by the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, the largest share of acclamations come in the French boards. In the 2022 municipal elections, 73 per cent of French public trustees were acclaimed, 52 per cent of French Catholic trustees were acclaimed, 31 per cent of English Catholic trustees were acclaimed and 21 per cent of English public trustees were acclaimed.

The province has taken control of six school boards since Calandra became minister, citing their mismanagement. He has said he is unlikely to restore the role of trustees at the public boards he has taken over. Meanwhile, he has ordered all boards to establish Student and Family Support Offices as a pathway for parents to escalate issues beyond their school.

Boards under supervision must open them in January and all other boards will be expected to open their offices by Sept. 1.

“It will be the exact same people who the trustees turn to in order to facilitate a parent request … but we will then know who is calling, what are they calling about,” he said.

“There will be a file, it can be monitored, and that information can be then shared with the ministry, so that we can address things much quicker.” 

Advocates for people with disabilities worry children with special needs, whose parents they say often take concerns to trustees, would be the most affected by their removal.