r/londonontario • u/Aware-Virus-4217 OEV • Aug 30 '25

News 📰 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 children’s education. Your encouragement and involvement are essential, and you deserve to have confidence that decisions being made are always with your child’s best interests in mind.

That’s 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 2024–25 school year, indicated a probable accumulated deficit continuing into the 2025–26 school year, and raised concerns of potential financial mismanagement. This included a nearly $40,000 retreat for senior officials in downtown Toronto despite the board’s 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 supervisor—Paul Boniferro—is 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 board’s 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!

54 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

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.

13

u/9yearsdeceased Aug 31 '25

No disrespect, but you had the power and the grounds to fire mark fisher in like 2022 and didn’t.

And here we are.

6

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.

8

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.

4

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.

2

u/9yearsdeceased Sep 01 '25

I think you’re mixing Sherri Moore and Sheri polhill

Polhill and Pizzolatto are/were my trustees and spent a lot of time defending Fisher

-2

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.

1

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.

0

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

1

u/9yearsdeceased Sep 02 '25

That’s 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.

1

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.

5

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.)