School trustee apologizes for 'bullying' behaviour toward colleague

A school trustee is apologizing for his behaviour after the chair of the Toronto District School Board announced off-duty police officers would be attending upcoming board meetings to curb bullying between colleagues.

Howard Goodman sent the email Monday afternoon, days after fellow trustee Sam Sotiropoulos made an official complaint about his behaviour towards Director of Education Donna Quan.

“I would have written this earlier but, as you can understand, the last few days have been fairly hectic for me,” the letter says. “I have not heard from you or any other staff member whether or not you thought my behaviour on Wednesday went beyond the sort of passionate discourse that is common in all political environments.

“If you or any members of our staff did feel my behaviour on Wednesday evening to be in any way inappropriate, I apologize without reservation,” the letter continues. “It was not my intention to cause distress.”

However, Goodman ended his letter saying he stood by his argument that Quan was in the wrong when it came to the issue of paying dues to the Ontario Public School Board Association.

The battle between Goodman and Quan began over a motion by Sotiropoulos which suggested the TDSB should remove itself from the OPSBA in order to save money.

However, the school board still owes the OPSBA about $382,000 in outstanding dues, Goodman said. Those dues would have to be paid regardless of Sotiropoulos’ motion and Goodman became angry during a discussion about why those fees were overdue.

Goodman said he found it “deeply disturbing and irregular” that Quan was going to wait another week to pay the fees because of “political considerations.”

“I consider allowing a valid invoice to remain unpaid for six months to be completely unacceptable,” Goodman says in his apology letter. “I am very concerned that our financial control systems could have allowed such an oversight to go unaddressed for so long. Our reputation is hurt by withholding for so long money that we owe.

“Even more problematic than the six-month delay is your response on Tuesday when you learned of it,” he continues. “Several trustees had conversations with you before Wednesday's meeting urging you to authorize immediate payment to OPSBA, a payment that had been approved by (the) board last year. These same arguments were also presented at the meeting.”

Goodman is still demanding an answer from Quan about the dues.

Though Quan didn’t name Goodman by name, she too penned a letter to TDSB Chair Chris Bolton over the weekend to discuss the “threatening and intimidating behaviour by a trustee.”

“This incident is not unique and has prompted us to now write to you in order to express our grave concerns about the conduct that some trustees have displayed towards staff,” the letter says.

Four associate directors on the board also signed Quan’s letter.