The chair of a school board recently placed under provincial supervision by Ontario’s Education Minister is defending the board’s management and finances. He argues that the move is a distraction from the ongoing issue of underfunding in the education sector.
Education Minister Paul Calandra made the decision to supervise the Peel District School Board following concerns about planned teacher layoffs and repeated budget deficits. This marks the seventh board to come under provincial supervision during Calandra’s tenure, with another board given a deadline to present reasons for avoiding a similar fate.
Peel board chair David Green explains that previous deficits were managed by using the board’s reserves and points out that part of the financial strain stems from higher spending on special education compared to the funding received from the province.
Regarding the teacher situation, Green clarifies that the adjustments are not full-time layoffs but a cost-saving measure involving the reassignment of resource teachers to classrooms currently managed by long-term occasional teachers, whose contracts are being shortened.
Minister Calandra criticized the mid-year disruption caused by these changes, highlighting the impact on approximately 1,400 students in affected classrooms.