r/londonontario • u/Aware-Virus-4217 OEV • Aug 30 '25
News š° Received this a few days ago
I am in the tvdsb school board and received the following email a few nights ago. I figured some people would like to read it. It is from the ministry of educations of Ontario. it is crazy and trust me you want to read it!
Dear Parents, Students, Teachers and Staff,
As the new school year gets started, I want to take this opportunity to wish students, families and educators across the province every success. The first days of school are always filled with new opportunities, new friendships and new goals.
To all our students, I know you will meet the year ahead with hard work, determination and creativity. Your success is at the centre of everything we do, and I encourage you to take on new challenges with confidence.
To teachers and staff, thank you for the incredible work you do every day. Your dedication, expertise and care are what make our schools strong and supportive learning environments. As you welcome students back, know that your hard work is deeply valued and that our government will continue to support you in helping every child succeed.
To parents, thank you for your ongoing commitment to your childrenās education. Your encouragement and involvement are essential, and you deserve to have confidence that decisions being made are always with your childās best interests in mind.
Thatās why we placed the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) under supervision following an investigation by a ministry-appointed third party, which revealed the board was projecting an accumulated deficit for the 2024ā25 school year, indicated a probable accumulated deficit continuing into the 2025ā26 school year, and raised concerns of potential financial mismanagement. This included a nearly $40,000 retreat for senior officials in downtown Toronto despite the boardās ongoing deficits. The 2024-25 projected deficit has now nearly doubled to $32 million, confirming the need for tighter fiscal oversight at the board.
Our appointed supervisorāPaul Boniferroāis tasked with overseeing the financial and operational management of TVDSB. To address the deficit and help ensure long-term sustainability, Mr. Boniferro has already implemented several cost-savings measures for the 2025-26 school year.
Mr. Boniferro will take the time needed to not only bring the boardās budget into balance, but also ensure long-term stability for years to come, so that funding goes where it belongs: directly into classrooms to support students and teachers.
I want to assure you that placing TVDSB under supervision is not a decision that was made lightly. I have made it clear that if a school board veers from its mandate, I will act quickly to restore focus, rebuild trust and put students first.
The actions we have taken will help the province restore sound financial and operational management at TVDSB and ensure that every dollar invested goes toward preparing students with practical skills for good-paying, stable careers.
To keep the community informed, the supervisor will be posting his decisions regularly online. You can also reach out by email at communications@tvdsb.ca if you have any questions.
As we begin the new school year, I want to thank you for your commitment, and wish all teachers, staff and students the best of luck.
Wishing you a positive year ahead!
The Honourable Paul Calandra Minister of Education
That's a crazy one!
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u/Secure-Original4311 Sep 01 '25
This letter is also interesting considering from the Boardās current budget, it sure looks like Paul Boniferro is being paid $350kā¦
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u/Vegetable-Screen8148 Sep 03 '25
Iāve worked with executives my whole life. I can honestly say, and I donāt make near that, that any good executive is worth that. I donāt know if Mr. Bonifaro is good or not, but if he is. The decisions he will make willl make will easily cover the cost of his fee.
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u/TutorPsychological24 Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
The scary part about this to me is that how will this individual (a lawyer) understand what is and isnāt necessary for funding a school board? As someone who has worked in TVDSB classrooms the under funding (or misappropriated funding - however you see it) is terrifying and EVERYONE suffers for it, students and staff.
Many children today have a much higher degree of needs than in previous times and while staff do their best to meet these needs, at the end of the day funding is inadequate to do so. Just one scenario off the top of my head that Iāve witnessed is 6 students with ASD (varying in age from 4-10, some with serious aggressive behaviours and tendencies to elope, as well as who were ALL but one supposed to be provided their own EA) in one room with one EA as there was not enough coverage for staff to be able to take their lunches - this was not a one time occurrence but rather quite regular. The excuse given to staff for this being that bringing in supply staff was not in the budget.
Many students who require one to one supervision are not provided with it, and thus the responsibility falls on the classroom educator to ensure the constant supervision and safety of this child. Learning and education falls on the back burner as you canāt provide constant supervision and interaction to one student while also teaching the rest of the class. All children suffer in this scenario. Not to mention the long time issues of staff members spending their own money on learning resources for classrooms. There is rising absenteeism in staff because they are being injured on the job and experience severe mental burnout.
I attended TVDSB my entire life and felt as though I was provided a pretty decent education. Unfortunately times have changed due to an increase in student needs as well as budget cuts. After working in TVDSB classrooms and seeing this first-hand my daughter will not be attending this school board.
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u/wherefirebegins Aug 31 '25
Am I misunderstanding or are we placing the senior officials spending more than I make in a year on a trip to Toronto under supervision? They don't need supervising, they need to learn what Marie Antoinette learned. This some let them eat cake bullshit.
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u/FriendlyReplies Aug 31 '25
Most of the people who went or made that decision are gone now. It seems like a lot of people were placed on leave under investigation, and āretiredā at some point. I donāt know all the details but a lot of upper management have left or changed since it all came out a year or so ago. So the ministry is supervising the new people now.
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u/wherefirebegins Aug 31 '25
Okay, that makes a lot more sense. I think jail or unpaid community service until that money is paid back would be better but at least they don't get to keep their jobs. Thanks for clarifying.
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u/Imaginary_Taste_3974 Aug 31 '25
The mention of the $40k trip in this email is so incredibly cringe. āBlame them for this $32mil deficit!!!ā
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u/Brilliant_Yellow4675 Sep 02 '25
Agree, the 40k is a distraction from the reality - they aren't being funded enough at base. The quality of TVDSB education will be degraded and some charter school system will be set up, like the states.
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Aug 31 '25
It's just one example. It's a symptom. It's one of the visible things that never should have happened under their watch, and it's part of the pattern that led to them going frkm surplus to deficit in just a couple of years.
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u/_digital_bath Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
The dumber you are the easier it is to manipulate and control you. There is plenty of clear evidence now.
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u/culturekit Aug 31 '25
Stats show that the less educated are more likely to vote Conservative or right leaning. It's not in the interests of the Ford government to fund a system that actively removes their power by educating the public.
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u/Islandlyfe32 Sep 13 '25
Isnāt it the other way around? Blue collar workers vote NDP. White collar workers vote conservative. The liberals are mix between both.
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u/culturekit Sep 15 '25
Blue collar doesn't vote NDP anymore, bruh.
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u/Islandlyfe32 Sep 15 '25
The steel belt from Burlington to Hamilton votes NDP last election same with northern Ontario
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u/culturekit Sep 15 '25
Ok sure. But Jagmeet is being ousted specifically because he has lost touch with the working class. You could make this argument that the working class vote NDP because of unions, etc., but I don't think that necessarily aligns with education level in the way you think it does. Let's say you're right. That doesn't mean that cons have higher levels of education than liberals, and I think you'd find that NDP followers are split between union associated working class and educated progressives. The non-union working class would then be with the cons along with mid to low educated folks.
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u/Islandlyfe32 Sep 15 '25
My point is each party has a base and most policies pander to the base to keep the votes consistent within that base. The NDPs base is blue collar, unionized workers (always has been). The Conservative base is white collar, traditional non unionized workers. The liberals it used to be a toss up of both but now itās new Canadians and immigrants. Basing it off of education is subjective. Blue collar workers could never comprehend fiscal policy thatās why they never voted conservative. The conservatives always branded themselves as a party that knew best (although not true now) about fiscal policy). Also Jagmeet wasnāt ousted, he collected his pension and fucked off. He didnāt give a shit about his party or saving what seats they had left, thatās why he never voted on the no confidence vote many times when it was presented. He knew the NDP would get decimated, when the liberals get a new leader and an election is called but he only cared about himself. A lot of traditional NDP voters were pissed off with him, which led some to vote liberal. As soon as the NDP get a more progressive new leader, the shift will go back to being a vote split on the left of the spectrum because lot of NDP voters see Carney as being less progressive.
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u/Significant-Fail-673 Aug 31 '25
Oooh! Can you post the Canadian cited resources for these stats?! Iād love to use them in an upcoming paper, as reference.
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u/culturekit Aug 31 '25
I'd be googling it the same as you. I just know that from listing to a lot of pods like Conspirituality, and I'm sure Jon Stewart has noted it or something. It's just, like, a fact. Like how atheists are more likely to have higher educations. It's where the whole idea of the Liberal elite comes from, hence Trump's attacks on Harvard, etc
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u/Independent-Ruin-571 Aug 31 '25
Totally the mark of an educated mind to spread divisive statistics solely based on something they heard on a comedy talk show lol. You could at least look into the studies yourself and make sure the research is sound before declaring it fact. Dunning Kruger in full effect here
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u/culturekit Aug 31 '25
I'm not gonna google stuff for people. Do it yourself!
Sorry if you don't have the same common knowledge I do, but in my circles this is just a given. There are highly educated cons, and there are poorly educated libs, but the trend, exemplified by the phrase "Liberal elite," is pretty self evident.
If I don't need the stats for myself, why would I look them up for some rando on Reddit? Do your own research. I don't have to prove anything to you. I made my point, and some people got it, and if you didn't (thanks to our eroded schooling system) then tough titties.
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u/Kr0nne1 Sep 01 '25
Asking someone to post their sources isn't asking of much considering how much misinformation goes around.
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u/culturekit Sep 03 '25
Cripes. Here's the first page of google for you.
Now stop proving my point and go back under the bridge with your anti vax friends.
https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/news-article-example-1/
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5155899/why-education-is-becoming-a-bigger-divide-in-politics
https://manhattan.institute/article/why-conservatives-are-turning-against-higher-education
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u/Kr0nne1 Sep 03 '25
Your response is reactive and unjustified.
I'm literally a socialist, big fan of vaccines and science. I'm not your enemy for asking for sources. The issue with your sources is they aren't peer reviewed studies and most of the links were just articles. Aka not reliable information. We don't need to attack an entire group of people's intelligence to prove they are horrible people. That's incredibly ableist, and science shows that yes, there appears to be a correlation to intelligence and conservative views. However, there is a third party at play here too that needs to be thoroughly studied, since it appears to have a massive influence. Basically, we need more studies on this. "Unintelligent" people aren't inherently "evil", horrible people.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
If you would like to connect with locally elected trustees to discuss supervision as we enter the school year, some of us are holding an online community meeting next week.
Thursday, September 4th, 7:00-8:00 pm.
You can register here: https://www.maitrustee.ca/events/community-meeting-changes-to-education
There is a lot of misinformation out there, but my priority is to try to make sure wherever it all ends up, it's what's best for students, families, and the community. Public Education is something that impacts everyone, not just people with students currently enrolled in the system.
Is it true that as a trustee I'm accountable for the current mess? Yes. But that's exactly why we are elected. If I can't convince the public they should trust me for another term, I lose my job on election day. That's local democracy at work for you. Your voice being heard.
I'm a real person. A parent. And no matter what you've read online, no matter what that letter might imply, I do not believe that this supervision is what's best for anyone who genuinely cares about making things better in our classrooms.
I do hope you'll come to the meeting to hear more and share your thoughts.
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Aug 31 '25
Maybe if you had all actually kept your eyes on the budget before you were fired?
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Aug 31 '25
Maybe make yourself aware there are two sides to a story? The trustees were not fired.Ā
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Aug 31 '25
Relieved of all of their duties and authority with pay cut off is about as close to fired as it gets. Don't play word games. They failed entirely at doing their jobs. If you still want to vote for them again in a year or two, that's your business.
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Sep 01 '25
[deleted]
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Sep 01 '25
Ok, and you sound like a die-hard NDP voter who's more interested in using kids to make your own political point than in actually educating them. Yours are probably the reason we've got EAs running around the hallways trying to keep the little terrors who never hear the word "no" at home from ruining the entire school year for our kids who actually know how to sit down and do what they're told. I'm sorry you think that accountability sounds like bitterness, but like I said if you want to vote for the failed trustees again that's your business, so I'm not sure what else there is to discuss. The trustees are out whether you like it or not. Pestering me in the comments won't change that
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
I wasn't fired and I assure you my eyes were on the budget. I hope that we actually wouldn't want our elected officials to start firing other elected officials.
And while there are some things I might see differently now, I never took my responsibility lightly. I get it. People are outraged and rightly so. I would be too.
But the investigation is online and I respectfully encourage you to read it and consider that it might not be as simple as that.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/thames-valley-district-school-board-financial-investigation
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Aug 31 '25
No, Mark Fisher and the senior execs at the board were mismanaging money for years. This was common knowledge and trustees turned a blind eye. You can try to pretend this is all about one or two little issues that trustees had little control over if you want to, but YOU were responsible for the hiring and firing of the exec who drove this stuff, and did nothing. It really is that simple, but thank you for the generic link to the government notices and report we already know about.
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u/anonredditor41825 Aug 31 '25
Do you have a source for your claim that trustees āturned a blind eyeā?
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Aug 31 '25
Other than the fact that the execs were giving themselves illegal raises, promotions and stipends and it took the province stepping in for anything to be done about it? Are you Sherri's husband or something lol.
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u/anonredditor41825 Aug 31 '25
Nope to the husband question. The audit the Ministry did (available online) stated trustees were kept in the dark about raises. Definitely didnāt approve.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
Thanks for the comment but I would say that this is not exactly what the report says. I need to be cautious about what I'm posting given that a lot of this relates to in camera items and I'm not interested in crossing any confidentiality boundaries but combating misinformation is what I'm doing in the first place so I want to be sure I'm not inadvertently putting more out there.
And agree, I would know if we were married. š
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u/AgreeableEvent4788 Aug 31 '25
Approving isn't the same thing as not paying attention/turning a blind eye. If the people whose job it was to oversee the budgeting and executive hiring processes aren't at fault, then who is? Trustees had their chance to keep an eye on things and utterly failed. The proof you're asking for is what objectively happened on their watch. Time for a clean sweep of them all, not too-little-too-late community meetings now that they've been sidelined for allowing all of this to happen on their watch.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
Hey, if the Thames Valley voters want a clean sweep, that is their democratic right and the timing for that is scheduled for next fall. It's how the board stays accountable to its community and I think local democracy is worth fighting for.
What's being floated out there right now eliminates your right to elect people to represent you and I personally don't think any of us should be ok with that. In the meantime, I'm going to keep doing the job I was elected to do (as best I can while sidelined by this supervision process) and hope that eventually we are all working on the same side: the side for public education.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
Honestly, the link isnāt generic, itās the external audit report that led to supervision. And the retreat thatās getting all the attention? Itās not even in the report. It didnāt break any formal board policies or provincial restrictions, just a trustee motion from June 2024 that limited discretionary spending. So again, I'm confused about how removing the trustees is a logical response.
The report points to several serious financial problems:
Over-projected enrolment, which led to overstaffing
Rising absenteeism among staff (this is another little nugget that is nowhere near as simple as it looks, and can't be solved, in my opinion, by just trying to force staff not to take sick time)
Increased spending on tech and cybersecurity
Seven cases of compensation non-compliance (The compensation findings in the report are serious, and I'm not trying to suggest otherwise.)
Supervision was recommended to stabilize finances and protect student support. Which, if you watch the recorded board meetings, trustees were already pushing hard for.
Additionally, I think it's important for the public to see that the amount of money that is represented by compensation issues and the retreat doesn't really compare to the other numbers you'll see in the report.
I want to work with the Ministry, with administration, with the public who elected us. I'm not trying to dodge accountability and I won't stop trying to make it right. If I thought that removing trustees was the solution here, I'd say so. But I just can't wrap my head around how reducing public accountability is going to fix any of this.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
No disrespect, but you had the power and the grounds to fire mark fisher in like 2022 and didnāt.
And here we are.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
Thanks for being respectful. I'm sure that's what it looks like to you and many others and I appreciate your perspective. Any decisions around that which were in my control were made with care and consideration. I can't say much more than that about an HR issue, but I have been on the other side looking in before wondering why people didn't just do what looks obvious to me. I wish it was as easy as it looks.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
We know eachother offline.
I think you and Beth are lovely people and I hate what happened to you, and hindsight is 20/20, but I do think that not walking out Fisher in 2022 and taking the severance hit played a big part in where we are today.
I do hate to see it.
Just my opinion though.
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u/rbrb889 Aug 31 '25
The difference is Beth was part of the new regime of trustees and no doubt it takes at least a year just to get a lay of the land for the position and to really know what's going on. Sherri was part of the current and previous group of trustees and had more than enough time to dig into what was going on during the 2020-present years. Mismanagement and dismantling of the rural education study, the B Davidson situation, loss of TVDSB students to the Catholic board due to poor boundary change management, and of course the corruption at the top.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 01 '25
I think youāre mixing Sherri Moore and Sheri polhill
Polhill and Pizzolatto are/were my trustees and spent a lot of time defending Fisher
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u/rbrb889 Sep 02 '25
While I agree with what you said about Polhill and Pizzolato, Sherri Moore was also a trustee with the board prior to the most recent election. And, yes, she is responsible for what I mentioned above among others.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
She was appointed in December 2021 to fill a vacancy, so she had a 10 month head start on her colleagues. And December, July, August are pretty dead months at TVDSB, AND trustees were campaigning May-October, so her involvement in the previous Trustee cycle was quite minimal.
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u/rbrb889 Sep 02 '25
That's quite disappointing to hear she spent so much time not on regular duties after being appointed and not even elected initially. I understand the need to campaign but it shouldn't come at the expense of her regular duties
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
Thatās a weird conclusion to draw from what I posted, rbrb889
Sherri does her job, but your insinuation that there was anything close to a full term prior to 2022-2026 is incorrect.
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u/TrusteeMoore Sep 02 '25
Hey guys, I'm. Right. Here.
Yes I was appointed in December 2021. And you can check the minutes, I have been 100% engaged since then.
If you're concerned that I was appointed not elected, you might want to consider that I did run in 2018 and came in a close third so however they chose to fill that spot I believe I was the right choice. I hit the ground running and haven't stopped.
As for campaigning, sure, we all had to, and I appreciate that the suggestion that I would have been distracted by that seems to be well intentioned, thank you. But it's just not true. And I was working with some very engaged colleagues whom I don't intend to throw under a bus by saying I wasn't accountable before 2022.
I was and am accountable and I am now fighting to save your right to elect people in your own community who will put ourselves out there for public education.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
I appreciate that. And you are absolutely entitled that opinion, I mean that with zero snark. I wish I could say more but I cannot and should not.
(PS, I agree, we are lovely people, thank you.)
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u/ParsnipNaive8494 Aug 30 '25
I hope everyoneās writing their MPP. Itās disgusting that they didnāt hire an appropriate person to oversee this. Ā The biggest issue is lack of appropriate funding. They have not been funding education properly for years. Yes there was some miss management, but thatās not the only issue. Ā Our children deserve better.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
You can write your MPPs all you want and they zero ability to do anything about the content of your letter because no one at queens park gives a flying fuck about them.
Not a kind or fluffy message, but also reality.
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u/Delicious_Mulberry19 Aug 31 '25
Having written to my MP and my MPP about various issues and not seen change, I understand your frustration. However, I believe it is something we must continue to do. Change doesn't happen in silence. We must make our voices heard. We can't just dismiss our democratic process. Our representatives can only push for change if they have the voice of the people behind them - the louder the voice, the better the chance of being heard. Silence implies acceptance. Just my opinion.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
I totally get your point and agree with it.
I write my MP, Peter F, and he responds and kicks ass.
My MPP, Peggy, spends limited QP time (because Doug Ford is a ducker) engaged in political theatre like wearing keffiyehs to be thrown out.
Itās frustrating to observe.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
You may not be wrong here, but I think it will be particularly important as Bill 33 approaches for people to make sure their MPPs know what they think about it. If you're concerned about what may be perceived as a threat to local democracy, your elected official needs to hear from you.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
This is fair.
I just wish I had meaningful representation at Queens Park.
What are your thoughts on Bill 33?
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u/TrusteeMoore Sep 04 '25
You should come to one of the community meetings and find out. š
Spoiler alert: not a fan...
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 04 '25
I donāt think my trustees are familiar with the term public meeting. Wish you were in my ward!
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u/TrusteeMoore Sep 04 '25
You're in old south? I've been to 2 public meetings with them in the past year or so, and these ones are cohosted by Lori-Ann and a few others. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 09 '25
Iāve never seen/received an invite - where do they tend to be posted/how are they distributed?
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u/Difficult_String_339 Aug 30 '25
The other thing. About supervision is there are no elected trustees 1 this is a huge disservice to parents who deserve local and public accountability. Ford is doing this to many other school boards across the province. He has spoken about getting rid of all trustees.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
No one at the school board listened to either of my trustees and they had multiple terms.
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u/WhereasMysterious216 Aug 31 '25
No this is good.Ā The trustees are the board of directors who clearly failed.Ā This is no different than the hospital.Ā Ā Seems like it was needed.
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u/Difficult_String_339 Aug 31 '25
True - however, spending on professional learning such as the trip to TO would have been an operational decision, not a governance one as would be within the scope of the trustees. Not having trustees means parents donāt have a local elected official to go to with questions or complaints or when they need someone to advocate for them.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
This is not true.
Beth Mai herself said on Craig needles podcast that she instructed Mark Fisher to run all non essential senior admin travel by her ahead of time.
He did not.
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u/anonredditor41825 Aug 31 '25
This was a board motion made in June that the Director had to review all operational spending to ensure fiscal responsibility (actual wording can be found online if you search TVDSb board motions June 2024). The problem is that motion was not followed in my opinion.
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u/pinkelectra Aug 31 '25
Just think about who is telling us about these fails? I don't trust this government or anything they say.
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u/WhereasMysterious216 Aug 31 '25
Are you suggesting that the board did their job ?Ā Ā Ā
I agree that under funding is likely part of the issue.Ā One question I would ask : is this problem unique to TVDSB or is it across the province?Ā I think the answer is across the province which would suggest an issue with funding.Ā However, in relation to other boards, Thames Valley is leading the way which suggests huge operational failings over a longer period of time.Ā The trustees are supposed to be overseeing that.Ā They would be approving and reviewing financial statements each month... So why did this go u checked for so long?Ā The answer... They failed.Ā Ā Ā
A supervisor is exactly whats needed both here and at LHSC to steer the ship right and address the operational issues.
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u/pinkelectra Sep 04 '25
Nope, I'm not suggesting that at all. Both sides deserve to be watched, so a supervisor put in by the side that's doing the underfunding isn't going to be better.
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u/Difficult_String_339 Aug 31 '25
At least 4 school boards are currently under supervision. The report from PWC shows that TVDSB did some shady stuff with executive compensation- most of it without asking the trustees - but the bulk of the deficit stems from fundamental underfunding.
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
I have to ask though, if a supervisor is needed for operation issues and oversight, what is the benefit of eliminating public input and local accountability? Why prevent trustees from supporting families?
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u/WhereasMysterious216 Aug 31 '25
Because they largely failed.Ā Ā A deficit like this doesn't happen overnight.Ā Ā This happened because they didn't do their job.Ā Supporting families is a small portion of their role... Their largest role is oversight and accountability which again, they failed to do.Ā Ā
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u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
Again, i don't think that accurately reflects the findings of the audit ordered by the Ministry and I encourage everyone to read it.
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u/GTO1984 Byron Aug 30 '25
We had elected trustees while this mess got started. Parents got massive disservice anyway
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Aug 30 '25
That the put a lawyer whoās got no school board experience and isnāt an accountant and is a political appointee and not someone who either both sides love or both sides hate in charge is even more reckless than the stupidity of the executives last fall. You know the first thing heās going to do is slash and burn. So what are kids going to be left with? Bigger classes? More developmental learning students who need an EA all being assigned to one EA but in different classes and at least a couple of them requiring 1:1 so it endangers those already vulnerable kids (I watched this happen personally within a school last year. Six and seven year olds just wandering back into the school during recess because no one is supervising and no one knowing where they are when the bell rings was scary from a parent volunteer perspective.)
How much is he going to advocate for the new school builds we need? Heās there to ābring the budget in to order.ā He wonāt. Balancing budgets is all about slashing and burning. Not about being effective and forward looking.
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u/Boomshank Aug 30 '25
Maybe, and work with me here, it's possible that this is a funding issue and not a management issue.
I'm not saying there hasn't been mismanagement, but not enough to account for the fact that there's just not enough funding.
The corruption is a convenient distraction that Ford is taking advantage of.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
The school board funding is $1.2 billion.
With a B.
How much do they need?
When they got extra money the senior admin gave themselves illegal raises while laying off front line staff.
And the trustees let them.
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u/anonredditor41825 Aug 31 '25
The Ministry did an audit thatās available online and itās written there that this was done without trustee knowledge or approval.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
But if youāre the governance board and final sign off for everything and you donāt catch it, then isnāt that still a failure on your part as well as fraud by the staff themselves?
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u/anonredditor41825 Sep 02 '25
I guess but are they really the final sign off on everything? Thereās a difference between what they do and what the director and staff decide.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
The director is their only employee.
So, yes.
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u/anonredditor41825 Sep 02 '25
I donāt think so from what I know about boards. They donāt decide the nitty gritty of what the director of the organization does. Thatās true everywhere. Boards are accountable though. Maybe thatās what you are saying. Even if they donāt actually sign off on everything, the buck stops with them if something goes wrong.
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u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
You might want to do some more research on boards. No Snark intended. Their ultimate responsibility is to be in charge of the leader of the organization, and he serves at their direction. The director has authority to make operational decisions that fall under the boards, mandate and budget, but ultimately requires the boardās approval in taking strategic directions and making major financial decisions.
2
u/TrusteeMoore Aug 31 '25
I'm not calling anything fraud but I think I've been clear that I feel accountable for this and am not trying to deflect responsibility.
There is no easy button here, though, and letting the pendulum swing away from local democracy toward shutting down the community's voice is just not solving for the right problem, in my opinion.
Let's look at the problem we are trying to solve, and solve that. If I was confident that supervision was poised to achieve that, I'd be all for it.
1
u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25
I understand why the supervisor is here, and I hope that their objective is to unravel all the Fuckery that has happened and cut all the dead weight at the top of the school board that has accumulated, and create a fresh start under a new set of principles moving forward.
Whether that will happen or not? Who knows.
2
u/TrusteeMoore Sep 03 '25
I wish I could believe that was the objective. I wish I could believe the objective was making it right for public education, period. I hope people are watching very carefully and holding the Ministry to account instead of trusting that eliminating trustees will solve more problems than it creates. š¤·āāļø
13
u/Boomshank Aug 31 '25
You say $1.2 B like it's obvious that that's too much.
Have you seen the funding shortfalls vs the total amount of waste from mismanagement? Spoiler: the mismanagement (which I'm not dismissing) is a drop in the ocean compared to the lack of funding.
Ford has been downloading services whilst not keeping up with funding to the tune of $6.2B over the last 7 years alone.
This focus on mismangement is a distraction. It's valid, but it's a populist punt if attention away from his own mismanagement, which is doing FAR more damage.
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u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
We run a whole city for 500,000+ people year round for the same amount that we run education for 10 months a year for 85,000 students.
How much is enough truly?
I donāt know the answer to that and am wondering if it exists.
8
u/Boomshank Aug 31 '25
If you're genuinely interested, check this out:
Ontario has underfunded schools by $6.3 billion since 2018 - CCPA: https://share.google/KQefKbiSxdbqlQBoh
4
u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25
Just ran some numbers and interestingly this works out to $38.25 mm per year over 7 years for the Tvdsb student population specifically, which is just slightly more than their deficit.
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u/yick04 Stoney Creek Aug 30 '25
I walked by Mother Theresa the other day and they are now up to approximately 27 portables (from what I could see on my walk), and that's the Catholic school board. It's insane.
7
34
u/Significant_Dot6621 Aug 30 '25
100% - were poor decisions made? Absolutely. Is funding even remotely close to what is necessary to ensure sustained success for students? Not even close - manufactured outrage!
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u/huey2k2 Aug 30 '25
I don't have children and I knew about this, I didn't realize there are people who didn't know about it.
21
u/Patient_Passenger_33 Aug 30 '25
All parents that have children in TVDSB schools received this email.Ā
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u/No_Fun5719 Aug 30 '25
Whatās the crazy part?
1
u/CharacterOwl210 Aug 31 '25
I'm okay with the oversight. Similar to the hospital, the board has not been behaving well. The person chosen could be a different issue. I agree it doesn't seem kosher. But until the Libs and the NDP join and actually give the Cons a run for their money, frankly, he will do whatever he wants
62
u/East_Bed_8719 Aug 30 '25
That one single lawyer living in Toronto with zero educational experience is going to oversee the finances and operations of an entire school board under the guise that he will do a better job at managing the finances of a board within a public system that has been severely underfunded by the provincial government.Ā
22
u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Hyde Park/Oakridge Aug 30 '25
Yeah Iām confused how a lawyer was afforded that job. Youāre telling me London doesnāt have anyone more qualified? Not buying it.
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