Province takes over Catholic school board
Posted on 04 June 2008 by Jack
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has appointed veteran school finance expert Norbert Hartmann to seize the financial reins of the beleaguered Toronto Catholic District School Board, saying she has “no confidence in trustees’ ability to continue to manage their affairs.”
The move comes on the advice of an investigator Wynne sent in last week to review the board’s books after an expense account scandal and a failure to balance their budget two weeks ago.
But the government is taking over despite a last-minute move by trustees Monday night to shrink the shortfall to what they peg at just $200,000 and after they adopted a new code of conduct they said they believed will prevent overspending.
The report by investigator Pierre Filiatrault says the board did not eliminate as much of the deficit as it said it had by midnight Monday, adding “saying a budget is balanced does not make it so.” He said the board has failed to react to declining enrolment or meet its budget targets for the last three years.
Mere hours after receiving Filiatrault’s damning report today citing the board’s “casual approach to compliance with the Education Act,” Wynne moved to appoint a supervisor to help restore public trust in Ontario’s largest Catholic school board.
“My actions today will ensure that this board is put back on track so that it can make responsible decisions that are in the best interests of students,” said Wynne.
“Public confidence in this board must be restored.”
Popularity: 23% [?]
June 4th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
About time!
June 4th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
About time indeed! But it is interesting that the Minister really didn’t do much UNTIL it became PUBLIC! How much money across the province has been siphoned from the system by trustees, I wonder?
Maybe we need to eliminate trustees…..they only seem to serve as government scapegoats in many cases.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I think it’s time independent forensic auditors took their microscopes to each and every board in Ontario.
Could this be happening elsewhere? Yep.
How about nixing school boards…..period? What with the micro-managing style and way too prescriptive policies the current government likes it would seem that too much central control really erodes the job of elected trustees. What’s left for trustees to do but spend money?
I think the trustees who have been found to have misused the public’s money should be charged and pay it back, then shown the door.
If we can’t nix boards entirely(because that would be putting some the size of small towns out of business), then introduce legislation that would allow a minister to disband a board, much like a principal can disband a school council.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:55 am
p.s. - come to think of it, why isn’t the number of trustees in Ontario decreasing in parallel with declining enrollment?
Shouldn’t it?
June 5th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Where was the Boards Superintendent of Finance in all of this?
Was there no internal financial control to catch and report this to the Boards Director of Education?
Very sloppy financial/administration at the board, if you ask me.
Not the first time a Catholic Board was in financial trouble as I believe the York Region Separate School Board faced similar problems a few years back.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:42 am
UV — I just put up a post on this topic.
But, it is my understanding that Board of Education staff, superintendents and director included, are not the final word on bugdets and certainly not what trustees spend.
That is the job of the trustees. They are the “board” as it were and the buck is supposed to stop with them. That is the hierarchy.
In fact, I can’t imagine a staff member, such as the board director, questioning them because they are the elected officials. This particular board “chair” and trustees (apart from a couple who tried to turn things around) are totally at fault — taking $107,000 each as stipends to pay for unbelievable expenses.
Even the Minister cannot interfere under the Education Act, other than what she has just done. In fairness, it’s actually a huge step for her to take under the law.
It is a similar process to “take over” hospital or university boards as well.