Province will act if northern Ont. school board doesn’t reform

The Minister of Education is calling on the Near North District School Board to act on 15 recommendations from a damning investigation into their operations.

Following a scathing, 33-page Ministry of Education report about dysfunction and governance issues at the Near North District School Board, Ontario’s Minister of Education Paul Calandra is threatening to intervene if the board doesn’t take the matter seriously.

Calandra spoke to reporters in Toronto this week, urging the school board to act.

The ministry appointed Rachel Osborne to investigate why the new Parry Sound JK-Grade 12 school wasn’t ready when students returned to the classroom -- and why no contingency plan was in place.

The report found there was a lack of leadership, communication issues and not enough construction site visits. That meant construction delays weren’t discovered until July, weeks before the school was supposed to be ready.

With no plan in place, high school students had to settle for online learning until the former school was deemed safe for them to use.

Osborne’s report said several trustees didn’t understand their role. Some who were opposed to the new school spread misinformation.

And her investigation revealed there was a serious lack of leadership from the director of education, Craig Myles, who worked in a former school instead of at the board office.

Myles is also under fire for participating in his own performance reviews that saw his salary increase from $171,000 to more than $300,000 in just a few years. He also allowed family members to use the corporate credit card and he made several questionable hiring decisions.

While Osborne made several recommendations, Calandra said he doesn’t believe the school board is taking the matter seriously.

Putting students first

“I suspect that they have no intention of putting parents, teachers and students first,” he said.

“So, I certainly have them on my radar.”

Calandra is also emphasizing that in the wake of the damning report’s release, the Ford Government needs to enact Bill 33.

If passed, it would give Ontario’s education minister more power to take control of school boards, particularly around matters of public interest and expenses.

“Every school board across this province, you better do what is right with students, teachers and parents first,” Calandra said bluntly.

“Or I’ll step in and do it for you.”

The ministry issued 15 binding recommendations to the school board, including education for trustees on their roles, board meetings, agendas and minutes being posted online. They come with a narrow deadline for the board to comply, between five and 15 business days.

“I shouldn’t have to wait as the Minister of Education for a school to turn into what the Near North situation has for me to step in,” Calandra said.

Trust, accountability

“Under the rules that I have right now, it is very difficult … to step in to put a school or school board back on track.”

Rob Hammond, the Near North Teachers’ Local Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario President, wrote a letter to the school board calling for the restoration of trust and accountability, along with Parker Robinson, the OSSTF District 4 president, and OSSTF president Martha Hradowy.

“With senior management, and especially in regard to the director, I think that that is something that the Minister of Education should take a look at,” Hammond told CTV News Thursday morning.

“If you want to talk about transparency, they locked the public, the trustees and the union members out of the board office. For transparency, I believe that’s somewhere where the Minister of Education could actually help.”

However, he said some of Calandra’s recommendations can’t be met on time and that this was a strategy to weaponize the need for broad school board governance changes.

“Some of the recommendations that he’s making that the trustees have to follow, I don’t see as reasonable,” Hammond said.

“I don’t think that they’ll be able to complete them. That will give Calandra the opportunity to put us in takeover. It’s a power grab and takes away from local democracy.”

School board chair Ashley St. Pierre previously said in a statement that the Near North District School Board “affirms its commitment” to address all concerns and that work has started in alignment with Calandra’s direction.