School board trustees defend role against threats from education minister
Posted Feb 12, 2026 07:39:11 AM.
Last Updated Feb 12, 2026 11:06:49 AM.
English school board trustees are fighting to keep their jobs as Ontario’s Minister of Education threatens to remove the role entirely over the coming months.
On Tuesday, the Waterloo Region District School Board held a special meeting to discuss a pair of motions that would provide advocacy for the role.
Last fall, Minister of Education Paul Calandra uncovered “excessive and unjustifiable” spending from a Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board trustee who used $50,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund a trip to Italy.
That incident and other instances of frivolous spending prompted Calandra to announce that he would pursue making changes to English school boards, potentially removing the role of trustees altogether.
“To remove that position means there’s no layer of protection,” said trustee Cindy Watson at Tuesday’s meeting. She attended the meeting wearing a shirt with the words “Respecting Parent Voice” on the front.
Her motion at the board looked to craft a letter that would be published online and sent to the province and local municipalities.
Trustees in Waterloo Region claimed that their role helps give parents a voice in the systems that govern their child’s education, and acts as a bridge between guardians and school staff.
However, trustee Mike Ramsay noted that, following recent controversies at some Ontario school boards, this is not a time to maintain the status quo.
“I think we need to accept some of the things that brought us to where we are right now in terms of some of the behaviours at boards of education across this province,” said Ramsay. “Some of the things that took place made it easy for the minister to be making the statements that he’s made.”
A second motion was brought forward at the public board meeting, looking to prompt an investigation from the Ontario Ombudsperson to examine the transparency, fairness and accountability of policies and government, related to the removal of trustees.
Both motions passed, and those letters will be posted to the WRDSB website when completed.
