‘Egregious’: Audit reveals mismanagement, unauthorized raises at TVDSB

A TVDSB report showed allegations of policy and procedural failures and overall mismanagement. CTV London’s Reta Ismail explains.

An investigation report regarding Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) was released late Friday May 16.

The 142-page report, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, details several instances of noncompliance with TVDSB policies and procedures, and indications of potential financial mismanagement.

There are seven insistences of non-compliance, including several high-level executives making more than they should have been.

According to the report “In March 2021, the Director of Education (Mark Fisher) advanced the existing General Counsel individual from a Manager level to the Executive Officer level which resulted in a salary increase in line with the respective grid per the Executive Officer level to a salary of $161,152.”

The report says Trustees’ approval is not required for Managers to be appointed as Executive Officers. But goes on to detail another promotion on June 29, 2023, where Fisher promoted the same person, again, from the Executive Officer level to the Superintendent level, which placed General Counsel on the salary grid at $199,000. The report says although the compensation of this individual aligns with the salary bands at each level, due process was not followed.

“We understand from Management interviews that this Superintendent appointment did not follow the traditional process for openings at this level; we understand that the General Counsel role at Superintendent level was not an open recruitment, therefore additional applicants were not considered, and no interviews were overseen by the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Trustees. Furthermore, we understand the Director of Education did not receive Trustee approval for this change,” noted the audit.

The report states that the maximum salary band for an Executive Officer was $175,000 in 2022-23. The General Counsel received an annual salary of $199,000 as a result of the promotion, totaling $72,000 over three years.

As of March 3, 2025, Ali Chahbar, Executive Officer and General Legal Counsel, for TVDSB has been on a paid leave.

According to education consultant Debbie Kasman, who has worked as a principal, acting executive superintendent, and student achievement officer at the Ministry of Education in Ontario, there is a lot to unpack in this report.

“When a school board is seriously strapped for cash and cutting programs for kids with special needs and slashing teachers and all the things that we know kids and teachers need in order for them to be successful in the classroom… that’s what makes this particularly egregious and heartbreaking,” says Kasman.

Another example noted in the report is that a superintendent was promoted to the associate director role without approval from the board of trustees.

“Maximum associate director salary is 40,000, higher than the maximum superintendent salary band, so we’ve got the noncompliance with board policy, where the director promoted this individual without approval from the trustees, which is required for associate director,” explained Kasman.

The report notes that that person, stepped back from the associate director role, to superintend, but the contract allowed him to keep his salary for two years, totalling $80,000 extra.

As of March 3, 2025, Andrew Canham, Superintendent of Student Achievement, went on paid leave.

Under the Summary of Executive Compensation Exceptions, the report also noted stipends paid out to high-level executives totalling nearly half a million dollars.

“The Director of Education, Superintendents, and Executive Officers received a 10% stipend during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years as compensation for the increased scope of their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. These stipends ranged between $15,526 to $23,950 annually, per executive, for a period of 20 months,” which totalled $475,006.

The audit makes note that “these stipends represent a new other element compensation, which is prohibited under O. Reg. 406/18, which came into force on August 13, 2018.”

“When you add that up for all those positions, that’s a lot of money that wasn’t allowed, that went into salaries,” says Kasman who adds the mismanagement is not isolated to TVDSB and would like to see change happen.

She’s written an open letter to Hon. Paul Calandra, Minister of Education, School Board Governance in Ontario, that states: “In my humble opinion, we need to look at governance structure and we need to make significant change, or we will never return trust to parents and to Ontarians at large in our education system.”

The president of the Thames Valley Teacher’s Local (ETFO) says there’s two parts to the report.

“You’ve got a financial and operational side of things and at the end of the day, you know, personalities and people aside, there’s a billion two of taxpayers’ money, I think we all have an interest in seeing is it deployed appropriately to support students, teachers in their programs, schools, principals in their work,” says Smith.

Both Kasman and Smith hope this report leads to changes by the provincial government to ensure the education system does not fall through the cracks.

The former Director of Education at TVDSB, Mark Fisher, formally resigned on March 7, 2025. On March 26, 2025, the Ontario College of Teachers was notified that Mark Fisher was found to have been the subject of several professional breaches.

The financial audit was called by the education minister last September, Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) Director of Education Mark Fisher landed on a leave of absence shortly after concerns were raised about a trip to Toronto over the summer.

The two-day “strategic planning session” for 18 senior staff members cost the board $38,444.92. The session included a stay in the hotel inside Rogers Centre, with rooms overlooking the baseball diamond. Meals and meeting rooms were also part of the package.

According to the report, the financial position of TVDSB has declined from a surplus of $3.5 million in 2020-21 to an in-year deficit of $17.32 million in 2023-24.

The audit notes concern that current state of the TVDSB “creates significant execution risk on timely and effective progress on reducing the deficit”, and the evidence of financial mismanagement “could result in significant reputational damage for TVDSB”.

Smith hopes there will be benefits from the review.

“I think if this audit process and the process that we’re now under with supervision, can help make sense of those big and confusing numbers and ultimately redeploy money where it needs to be redeployed, which is to say to students and then to teachers in support of their learning.”

The report says although the compensation of this individual aligns with the salary bands at each level, due process was not followed.

“While there was no trustee approval for certain decisions that were made, it’s additionally important to recognize that trustees were not aware of some of the decisions that were made by administration while we were governing,” said School Board Trustee Beth Mai. “We may not be responsible for certain decisions that were made as a governing body, I do accept that we are accountable to the public for whatever decisions that were made, regardless of who made them.”

CTV News has reached out to Ali Chabhar for comment. As of publication time, we have not heard back.