Fewer people running for trustee in some of Ontario’s supervised school boards

The slate of municipal election candidates for school trustee in some boards under provincial supervision is set to be thinner than in the past, as would-be contenders face the prospect of running for a job they may not be able to do.

Education Minister Paul Calandra has taken provincial control of eight school boards, citing largely financial mismanagement.

Several have been under supervision for more than a year but Calandra has not signalled any timeframe for that to end, repeating only that boards will be returned to trustees when their house is in order.

“When that time comes, they will return, but not before,” he said in April. “If it takes me one year, two years or 10 years, I’ll take the time that’s needed to put these boards back on track.”

Ontario’s upcoming municipal elections now fall in the midst of that indefinite supervision period for Toronto’s public and Catholic boards, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board, the Thames Valley District School Board, the Near North District School Board, the Peel District School Board and the York Catholic District School Board.

Donna Dickson is one of four trustees in Ottawa’s public board who are running instead for city council in October’s municipal elections. She said she felt she couldn’t run for trustee because she would no longer be able to help parents in the way she used to.

“There’s nobody there now to help them because our hands are tied,” she said. “We’re not allowed to actually do anything.”

Legislation from Calandra earlier this year sharply reduced the role of trustees across the province, including cutting budget responsibilities at English-language boards, and mostly removing their role in central bargaining.

But at the eight boards under provincial control, the role of elected trustees is effectively suspended, though in Catholic boards trustees still control denominational issues.

Donna Blackburn, another Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustee now running for council instead, said she would have run as trustee again if it weren’t for supervision, but it is an entirely different proposition now.

“The minister’s been very clear that these people can run for trustee, but that there’s no reason to believe they’ll actually be seated,” she said. “So people have to decide: are they willing to invest the time?”

In the last round of municipal elections in 2022, there were 41 candidates for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s 12 trustee positions. Candidate registrations for the Oct. 26 elections close on Friday afternoon, and as of the beginning of the week there were only 25 trustee candidates for that board.

In the York Catholic District School Board, about half of the positions so far have just one candidate registered.

Yan Zhou is one of those set to be acclaimed, running in Markham for the York Catholic board. He said he chose to put his name on the ballot believing the supervision is temporary.