Elected school boards across Canada are increasingly threatened. Ontario Education Minister Paul Callandra recently said he is open to eliminating elected trustees altogether. This would would follow the lead of Nova Scotia and Québec, where they have already been abolished.
As a temporary measure, Ontario has taken over the role of elected trustees in five boards by appointing supervisors to oversee their finances and operations.
I’m an educational historian who has studied the comparative history of teaching and development of educational systems and an elected school board trustee for the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB), which the province recently put under supervision following an investigation of the TVDSB’s financial affairs.
