The Ford government’s decision to keep trustees in place long-term — albeit with limited powers — will not mean the end of supervision at eight Ontario school boards, the education minister says.

But, despite keeping direct control of some of the largest school boards in the province, Paul Calandra said people should run for election to take their place if and when he ends supervision at the boards.

If candidates decide not to run, the minister said Monday, he’ll select people to fill the vacancies.

“If people choose not to run for that position and want to wait until we return the supervised boards to trustees, that’s fine,” he said. “The ministry has the statutory powers to fill those vacancies.”

On Monday, Calandra unveiled his long-awaited education reforms, keeping trustees in place across public, Catholic and French boards, but limiting their pay, expenses and say over the board’s annual budget.

The education minister said the new changes would not lead to an immediate end to supervision, with government appointees still running eight boards, including Toronto public, Toronto Catholic, Ottawa-Carleton, Peel public and Dufferin-Peel Catholic.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

“Those boards will remain under supervision for as long as it takes to put them back on the right track,” Calandra told reporters.

Elections for new trustees will take place in October, with only Toronto public seeing a cut to the number of trustees sitting on its board.

Even for boards that are under supervision, ballots will be cast for trustees. Those who win elections at supervised jobs will not receive any pay or responsibility until the government decides to end supervision.

Jill Promoli, an elected school board trustee in the Peel District School Board, said over the course of the provincial takeover, elected officials have heard very little from the Minister of Education directly.

“I have had no communication from the Minister of Education, absolutely nothing. So there doesn’t seem to be any respect from this minister for the elected role of trustee,” Promoli said.

The PDSB trustee was first elected in 2022, at a time when her board was under supervision following investigations into racism and discrimination in early 2020.

“This is the funny thing, too, putting boards under supervision is not a new thing,” she said.

“The Peel District School Board was under supervision, but trustees were not out of their roles. They had a diminished role, but they were still there. They were still able to attend meetings. They were supporting their community. And so when I was elected, I was selected to a board under supervision.”

The changes Calandra has tabled will reduce trustee responsibility over key financial decisions, something he said would “potentially” pave the way to ending supervision.

“But, as I said, there’s a lot of challenges in each of the supervised boards, for a lot of different reasons, not just financially,” he added.

“One board that you saw trustee infighting — more than one board — where trustee infighting basically was costing millions of dollars, in other instances, they were ignoring conflict of interest issues. They’re under supervision for a number of reasons.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Trustees in Ontario are waiting to see if they’ll still be in place for October’s elections, as the education minister prepares to present his plans for school board reform.

Before legislators returned to their ridings ahead of the Good Friday long weekend, Education Minister Paul Calandra promised his long-awaited trustee-related legislation was finally ready.

“Just a few more sleeps and you’ll be able to see where we’re going,” he teased in a scrum with reporters at Queen’s Park on April 2.

For almost a year, Calandra has openly mused about the future of trustees, discussing the constitutional protections afforded to French and Catholic Trustees and highlighting the lack of cover for public boards.

An overhaul of school boards and the potential elimination of trustees was initially expected toward the end of 2025, and then pushed back.

Instead, Calandra continued a widespread takeover of school boards. There are now eight boards in Ontario under the direct supervision of the government, many of them among the largest in the province.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

The boards under supervision are:

1. Peel District School Board
2. York Catholic District School Board
3. Toronto District School Board
4. Toronto Catholic District School Board
5. Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
6. Thames Valley District School Board
7. Near North District School Board
8. Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

At those boards, government-appointed supervisors have taken over running the boards instead of elected trustees.

6:01
Why Ontario education minister is determined to overhaul how school boards work

However, board takeovers are, theoretically, temporary measures. Calandra has said he will return boards to their trustees once they are going in a direction he approves of.

Speaking to reporters, he said he was pleased with the progress under supervisors but that boards “shouldn’t expect” to be under the control of trustees in the near future.

“I think we’re starting to see boards under supervision making the progress that we need,” he said.

“Certainly, in Near North we’re seeing some great progress with respect to the super build. Frankly, all the supervised boards, they’re doing what they need to do to put the boards back on track and we’re seeing the results of that.”

As for the details of his school board overhaul, which has now been through the cabinet process, Calandra said he would be “releasing the legislation as soon as we get back after the constituency week.”

Legislators return to Toronto on Monday morning.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Ontario’s education minister says he will keep school boards in the province under supervision for years if necessary and won’t feel pressure to hand them back to elected trustees until he is confident they’re being well-run.

Paul Calandra has put eight school boards under supervision over the past year, sidelining trustees at some of the province’s largest boards.

Both Toronto public and Catholic, as well as the two English-language boards in Peel Region, are now being run by provincial supervisors. The eight supervised boards represent some 750,000-plus students.

“Almost 40 per cent of the student population in Ontario is under the control of the Ministry of Education right now,” Calandra said. “That ostensibly is to ensure that classroom funding is maximized to lower down the temperature we’d seen in advance of supervision.”

Supervision is something that has concerned some in the education space, including parent groups and unions. An open letter sent to the Ford government asked for a clear plan on how boards would return to trustee-led governance.

Calandra, however, suggested he was in no hurry to reverse course.

“With respect to the boards that we have under supervision, they’re not going to be turned back until they’re on the right path, full stop,” he said. “If it takes us one year, two years, three years, 10 years — I don’t care.”

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

Calandra has also mused over months about the future of trustees, pointing out he has the power to abolish English public school trustees if he chooses.

David Maston, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said giving the provincial government control of day-to-day decisions at school boards is a mistake.

“Comments about potentially eliminating them altogether, concentrating decision-making power at Queen’s Park, should concern us all,” he said.

“These actions raise serious concerns about the minister acting without meaningful consultation from those directly involved: the families of students, educators and education workers.”

Calandra has pointed to a trip to Italy taken by trustees at one board and an excursion to the Toronto Blue Jays’ hotel by another board as examples of mismanagement from elected trustees.

David Lepofsky, a disability advocate and chair of the AODA Alliance, said it was a “false dilemma” to suggest trustees must exist in their current form or be abolished.

“Mend it, don’t end it,” he suggested.

Among Lepofsky’s concerns is the danger that eliminating trustees could reduce the options for parents of children with disabilities. He said supervision at the Toronto District School Board had hurt children with special educational needs.

“What we’ve seen from the point of view of kids with disabilities and special education needs is that after six or more months under their supervision, things have not gotten one bit better,” he said.

“In fact, things have gotten appreciably worse.”

While Calandra seemed to be moving full steam ahead with the removal of trustees a few months ago, Premier Doug Ford would not commit to the plan on Wednesday.

“I can’t confirm it right at this second, everything’s on the table,” he said. “What we want to do is focus in the classroom, what we don’t want to see is mismanagement.”

Calandra said he still planned to recommend changes.

“I haven’t given the premier my suggestions yet for reform -I’ll do that very soon,” he said. “A whole host of options for the premier and then to my cabinet colleagues.”

The lack of a decision so far is something Kathleen Woodcock, president of the Ontario Public School Board Association, hopes means the idea could be scrapped.

“I hope the premier has decided to listen to all of the education sector, saying this is not a path that really makes any sense for our students,” she said.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Ford government says it will give elementary school teachers access to $750 per year in classroom supplies, which they’ll be able to order directly from a new provincial website.

Beginning in September, teachers will be able to use the money to buy writing supplies, calculators, chalk, art, crafts and tissue, among other classroom supplies.

The government said it will offer direct support to teachers, who, Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Paul Calandra both say, have been forced until now to spend their own money on supplies from dollar stores.

“We know that many teachers have been paying out of pocket for supplies. That isn’t fair for teachers or students,” Calandra said.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

“While school boards receive funding for classroom resources, we have not always seen those dollars consistently reach every classroom. That is why we are putting funds directly in the hands of teachers to ensure their classrooms are equipped to support student achievement.”

He said the funds would be in addition to the money boards currently receive.

David Mastin, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, suggested that spending accounts missed the mark.

“For years, educators have spent hundreds of dollars of their own money to ensure students have what they need. If the government is finally acknowledging this reality, it’s long overdue,” he said in a statement.

“The real issue that needs addressing is this government’s ongoing refusal to address the chronic underfunding that forces educators to subsidize classrooms out of their own pockets in the first place.”

The government said the new website will offer supplies for elementary teachers grade-by-grade, which will then be delivered directly to schools.

The province said it would consult with teachers to work out what supplies it needs to stock on the website.

Calandra said the current policy, which only targets elementary school teachers, was a “start” and he would be open to expanding it to secondary school teachers.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A trustee at Ontario’s second-largest school board says she and her colleagues were “fully cut off” from information about the provincial takeover, expressing concerns about how programming decisions will impact special needs students.

On Thursday, the Ford government confirmed that the Peel District and York Catholic school boards would be under provincial supervision, a move that has sidelined elected trustees and replaced them with a provincial appointee.

“I had a phone call saying, heads up, there is going to be some official news coming, but we’re not getting the board back,” said Jill Promoli, who was elected as the trustee for wards 6 and 11. “But we learned more from press releases than we did from the minister.”

The takeover is one that the government signalled was coming more than a month ago.

At the end of January, Education Minister Paul Calandra took control of the Peel District School Board, appointing himself as temporary supervisor, claiming that the board was about to lay off 60 classroom teachers, which required immediate provincial intervention.

While trustees were given two weeks to respond to the minister’s concerns, Promoli said there was no direct communication with Calandra.

“We have been fully cut off since this announcement came on Jan. 28,” Promoli said. “Those of us who are the elected trustees, we have continued to speak with each other, but it seems like it’s just been silence, just radio silence for all of this time.”

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

In early February, the board responded to the minister’s concerns with a plan to address the “financial impacts of declining enrolment” with a promise that the board “will not face an in-year deficit again.”

“We have taken clear and decisive steps to balance the 2025-26 operating budget without any impact on classroom teachers or education assistants,” the board said in a 10-page report to the minister.

“Then we heard nothing,” Promoli said. “It was just crickets.”

As the deadline came and went, trustees began to grow concerned about the province’s plans.

“After not being able to justify the supervision based on that report, they then spent several weeks trying to find other reasons to have justification for having taken us over earlier,” Promoli said.

The justification came on Thursday.

Heather Watt, a management consultant who once served as former health minister Christine Elliott’s chief of staff, was appointed to take over the day-to-day running of Peel public. Carrie Kormos, with a background in consulting and casinos, will take over York Catholic.

Calandra said the moves came as a result of concerns about long-term financial sustainability and “infighting” among trustees.

“After careful review, it is clear that both Peel and York Catholic are facing serious challenges that they cannot resolve on their own,” he wrote in a statement.

“I have appointed supervisors to restore sound management, strengthen oversight and ensure every decision is focused on protecting student learning and success.”

Promoli, whose trustee profile has been scrubbed from the PDSB website, expressed concern that the supervisors, who don’t have a background in education, will be ill-suited to decision-making that could impact special needs students.

“Everyone’s just really sad,” Promoli said. “We’re there because we really care about the kids in our system.”

“Many of us are parents or grandparents of students in our board. We have former educators at the table. We’re just people who really love public education and want to make sure the system is working best for our kids.”

The move is part of a string of school board takeovers that began last year.

Both the public and Catholic boards in Toronto are under the direct control of Queen’s Park. So are the two boards in Peel Region.

Ottawa-Carleton, Thames Valley and Near North district school boards are the other three boards with supervisors.

Ontario has a total of 72 school boards.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The organization representing Ontario’s school boards says it hasn’t had any communication with the Ford government over the future of elected trustees, as concerns about their potential abolition continue.

The Ontario Public School Board Association said it’s listening closely to public comments made by Premier Doug Ford and his education minister about whether they want to eliminate trustees, without receiving any formal word.

“Nothing official to date,” the organization’s executive director, Stephanie Donaldson, confirmed to Global News.

“Parents are really concerned and I think there’s a lot of confusion out there across the education sector and in homes across Ontario, without knowing where we’re actually going with this. I think people would really love a conversation — and an actual consultation — on this with the folks that are affected, in particular the students.”

On Monday, Ford confirmed the government was still “discussing” whether or not to get rid of trustees, offering no details of what those conversations entailed. Education Minister Paul Calandra has indicated he’s keen to majorly overhaul school boards without yet tabling legislation.

Donaldson said it was important that a decision from the government comes soon, with nominations set to open for school board elections this spring.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

“We’ve got municipal elections coming up in a few short months where people will be electing their mayor, their councillor and their trustees,” she said. “And so I think voters want to know too, that they have some stability in their local democracy as well.”

Calandra has mused about the future of school board trustees for close to a year as he has taken control of some of Ontario’s largest school boards. Both the public and Catholic boards in Toronto and Peel Region are now under the control of a supervisor, as well as Ottawa-Carleton.

The appointment of a supervisor, which has happened at seven boards over the past year, effectively sidelines trustees and puts the education minister in charge.

The most recent group to complain about the move was the Black Trustees’ Caucus, which is part of the Ontario Public School Boards Association.

In a letter to Ford, the group expressed concern that supervision and the sidelining of trustees was hurting representation for marginalized students at some school boards.

“Ontario cannot address systemic anti-Black racism while weakening the governance and equity structures designed to confront it,” Debbie King, chair of the caucus, wrote.

“Sustaining strong oversight during provincial supervision is essential to meeting legal obligations, maintaining public confidence, and improving outcomes for Black students — and for all students.”

A spokesperson for Calandra’s office said inequalities were one of the reasons he had decided to take over some school boards.

“Disparities in our school system highlight the need for governance reform of an outdated system that, for too long, has left too many students behind,” the statement read.

“I am focused on student achievement by rebuilding a system grounded in respect, responsibility, and support.”

Donaldson said she understood why the government was taking its time deciding whether or not it would do away with trustees, but urged Ford to have a more open conversation.

“Talking about a governance reform of this scale across the education sector is a really serious matter. So I respect the fact that there are sober discussions that are happening in government,” she said.

“We’d love to see those discussions actually happen with the public and ourselves outside of government as well.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Doug Ford says he is still “discussing” whether or not to get rid of elected trustees in Ontario, signalling a final decision has not yet been made on his government’s overhaul of school boards.

Speculation has percolated about the future of trustees for close to a year as Education Minister Paul Calandra embarks on a mission to reform how school boards operate by taking control of some and musing about the future of trustees.

At the end of January, the government put the Peel District School Board under supervision. It joined Toronto public, Toronto Catholic and Ottawa-Carleton on the list of seven boards where trustees have been sidelined.

Calandra previously told Global News he did not plan to change the role of French language board trustees and would maintain some form of Catholic school board elected official because of representation requirements.

“The public school trustees have no constitutional cover whatsoever,” he said.

It had, at one point, seemed the overhaul of school boards could come during the fall sitting of the legislature, which wrapped without new legislation on the issue. Calandra said in December he was aiming to table his changes in the new year.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Asked if he wanted to see trustees abolished altogether on Monday, Premier Ford suggested a final decision still hadn’t been made.

“We’re sitting down and discussing that and we’ll see when we move forward,” he said. “But I just want to fix the school boards, there’s a lot of waste of taxpayers’ money and we see it.”

In the latest intervention, Bluewater District School Board wrote to the ombudsman asking him to review any potential abolition of school board trustees.

“The removal of English public boards of trustees would also result in the loss of Indigenous representation where it currently exists,” part of the letter read.

“Additionally, a move by the provincial government to remove English public school trustees would have a detrimental impact on the student voice in the affected boards through the loss of student trustees. This is the sole legislated role giving voice to Ontario students in English public schools.”

Calandra has not laid out his full plan for the future of Ontario’s education system, but has maintained some school boards are poorly run and said he wants to take more direct responsibility for their decisions.

“I have not yet provided advice to cabinet on where I want to go,” Calandra said in December. “But to be clear, there is absolutely nothing to date that has moved me from where I have been for months, that trustees aren’t necessarily the right avenue to deliver education across the province of Ontario.”

Ford suggested Monday the education minister would have an announcement on more funding for teachers to purchase classroom supplies in response to a question about the ombudsman letter on Monday.

“Minister Calandra is going to make an announcement, hopefully sooner than later,” he said, after telling a story about meeting teachers in dollar stores.

“Each principal, I hear, gets $300; when I talk to the teachers, they’re saying they don’t even see it. So, we’re going to make that change, and it’s going to be a very, very positive announcement for front-line educators.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is showing no signs of revising his changes to student loans or tuition fees, saying OSAP “is not a freebie anymore” and that “money doesn’t grow on trees” as opposition continues to bubble.

Both the Ontario Liberals and NDP have brought groups of students to the legislature in recent days to protest against the decision to unfreeze tuition fees and move student finance to a majority loan-based system.

“I’ve heard from a lot of students from a messaging me. I appreciate their messages. Some are pretty nasty, but some are very professional,” Ford said on Monday, defending the decision more than a week after it was first announced.

“It’s not a God-given right to take taxpayers’ money. It’s a God-given right to get your college degree and university.”

Frustration with the changes has been simmering since the Ford government first announced them on Feb. 12, allowing colleges and universities to increase tuition by two per cent a year, offering them more government cash and changing how OSAP works.

The latter change is the one that has attracted the most energy, shifting public funding for students from loans to grants.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

The existing proportion of OSAP was about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, the government said, but starting this fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.

“The changes to OSAP into a primarily loans program will burden the next generation of students with more student debt than ever before,” Adaeze Mbalaja from the Canadian Federation of Students said.

“This decision will jeopardize the financial future of the next workforce of Ontario.”

On Monday, Ford repeated his assertion he supported college and university education — as long as it was in one of the sectors of the economy he views as in-demand, like health care.

“We’re investing in our education, we’re still subsidizing colleges by $7 billion,” he said. “But you’ve got to go out there and if you get an in-demand job, keep in mind we won’t have to pay back the loan for four years, and then six months after you don’t have pay it back. But get an education that you can get a job.”

Students, however, aren’t convinced, pointing to a sputtering economy and high unemployment.

According to figures on the government’s website, unemployment for people aged 15 to 24 sat at 15.6 per cent in December. It was seven per cent for people aged 25 to 54.

“This is all happening during one of the worst youth employment markets in years,” Nicholas Silver, from the University of Toronto’s graduate students’ union, said.

“We are asking our students to take on more debt with fewer opportunities to find stable employment to repay that debt after they graduate. The effects of this will be clear. Due to this uncertainty and risk, fewer students will choose to pursue post-secondary education.”

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, whose party brought students to the legislature Monday, echoed the concern.

“Doug Ford’s OSAP cuts couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ontario’s youth,” she said. “Youth unemployment is sky-high, cost of living is out of control, and now this government is making sure that students are buried in thousands of dollars of debt before they can even get their first job.”

Ford pointed out that student grants and loans come from the public purse.

“You are taking tax dollars and you have to be held accountable when you take tax dollars,” he said. “It’s not a freebie anymore. Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Ontario’s education minister has directed the province’s school boards to stream Team Canada’s Olympic hockey games during classroom times so students can “rally together and cheer on some of Canada’s best.”

Premier Doug Ford announced the idea in a social media post on Wednesday evening, saying he had told Education Minister Paul Calandra to work out how schools could make it possible.

“To help everyone get in the spirit of the games, I’ve directed the Minister of Education to make sure all Ontario students are able to watch the remaining Team Canada hockey games that take place during school hours, starting with tomorrow’s game,” the premier wrote.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The Canadian women’s hockey team plays its gold medal match against the USA at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday, while the men’s semi-final against Finland will be played at 10:40 a.m. on Friday.

Calandra confirmed Thursday morning he had moved on Ford’s request and told schools they must let students watch the games.

“In recognition of the Olympics and this exciting time for Team Canada, I am directing all school boards to let students tune in to both the Women’s and Men’s hockey games during school hours,” he said in his own social media post.

“Big games like these aren’t just about the outcome, they’re a chance to rally together and cheer on some of Canada’s best.”

The Winter Olympics wrap up on Feb. 22.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.