যশোরে বিজিবির ট্রাকের ধাক্কায় সাইকেল আরোহী নিহত
· Kaler Kantho
The Doug Ford Progressive Conservatives tabled new legislation Monday meant to hold boards accountable while supporting student achievement.
Introduced by Education Minister Paul Calandra, the Putting Student Achievement First Act aims to solve what the government says is financial mismanagement and poor governance at Ontario’s school boards.
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“Ontario’s teachers and education workers are dedicated professionals who work tirelessly every day to support students, often under challenging circumstances,” Calandra said in a statement. “They deserve stable, accountable leadership that supports their work and puts learning first.
“If further action is required to protect students and reinforce respect for the professionals who teach them, we will not hesitate to act.”
New rules for school trustees
Monday’s legislation will limit discretionary expenses and honorariums for elected school trustees, enact a maximum of 12 trustees per board, and improve oversight of how trustees use public funds.
The ministry pointed to recent high-profile cases of trustees gone wild, including trustees at the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic board who spent $190,000 of board funds on a junket to Italy to purchase $70,000 worth of art for a pair of new schools — and led to the board paying close to $60,000 in legal advice after the trip concluded.
Also cited was the nearly $7,000 in board money used by Toronto Catholic school board chair Markus de Domenico to buy Apple Airpods, iPads, a 4K video projector, 30 cellphone screen covers, and prepaid European SIM cards.
Trustee honorariums will be capped at $10,000. Currently, trustees earn a base $5,000 annual honorarium (chairs earn an extra $5,000 allowance) plus variable enrollment pools where trustees take shares of a fund determined by multiplying their board’s average daily enrollment by $1.75.
School boards will also see limits placed on how many trustees they’re entitled to — with small boards getting between five and 12 trustees.
“This would reduce the number of trustees at the Toronto DSB (currently 22) to 12, making it the only school board affected by the change and aligning it to the Toronto Catholic DSB,” read a backgrounder provided to reporters ahead of the announcement.
As well, trustees would no longer rely on school boards to pay for some external memberships or cover costs to attend non-essential conferences.
Big changes for school board management
Directors of Education would also see their roles changed — the new legislation would see them rebranded as “CEO” and be required to hold business qualifications to deliver expected outcomes and financial oversight.
A new “Chief Education Officer” (CEdO) position will also be established, requiring candidates to hold Ontario College of Teachers certification to focus on improving student achievement.
One person may hold both roles if they’re qualified.
Trustees will still have the power to appoint CEOs, but would require ministerial approval to dismiss them — a means to prevent trustees from executing reprisals upon board leadership.
Other changes include centralizing and professionalizing bargaining, giving the minister powers to oversee, redirect or cancel capital school projects and allow third-party control of projects.
Board officials and trustees would also be prohibited from using their position as political pulpits for geo-political issues .
The bill would also mandate approved learning resources in Ontario classrooms, dissolution of the Languages of Instruction Commission of Ontario, expanding use of the Ontario Education Number (OEN) and offering options for OENs to be assigned from birth to streamline provincial child care, and condensing Ontario’s Bachelor of Education program from two years to one.
School boards under provincial supervision
Last year, Queen’s Park suspended trustees and appointed supervisors in a number of Ontario school boards to address mismanagement allegations.
Since 2025, eight school boards across Ontario have been placed under provincial supervision — most recently the Peel District School Board (PDSB) and York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB), a move Calandra said last month was due to “serious concerns about infighting and long-term financial unsustainability” that he said risked disrupting learning and undermining student achievement.
Other boards under provincial control are the Near North District School Board in Parry Sound/Muskoka, Thames Valley District School Board in London, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and Toronto’s public and Catholic school boards.
Provincial supervisors were assigned to oversee those boards.
Calandra also cites poor student performance for the government’s need to take action , pointing to standardized testing results suggesting 42% of Grade 9 English-language students and roughly half of English-language Grade 6 students fail to meet provincial standards for math.
Of the 133,542 Grade 9 students assessed, only 58% met provincial standards — up 4% from the 2023-24 school year.
Those percentages fall farther for Grade 6 students, of whom only 51% met provincial standards — 1% more than the 2023-24 school year.
