The provincial government has taken direct control of the Toronto District School Board, sidelining its 22 elected trustees. For Toronto parent Jennifer Volk, the move is an attack on families
Kids at the TDSB are back in school, but in a school system much changed. Over the summer, the provincial government took the unprecedented step of sidelining the TDSB’s 22 trustees — elected representatives for parents on the school board — in favour of a single appointed supervisor, Rohit Gupta. Trustees have since been locked out of their offices, banned from using their official email accounts to talk to parents, and prohibited from engaging with school staff or parent councils.
The provincial government claims that the TDSB, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board and two others were mismanaging their funds and that trustees were turning a blind eye — but some, like parent Jennifer Volk, see ulterior motives. A parent of two daughters at Riverdale Collegiate Institute, she considers the loss of trustees a violation of her democratic rights — and a risk to her daughters’ education. We caught up with her to get a parent’s view on the TDSB takeover.
What worries you about your daughters’ school? The school has gotten worse in recent years. The teachers are getting burnt out, and teacher absenteeism is going up. The classrooms are getting fuller, but the resources just aren’t there for the kids. It’s getting to the point where I’m worried about their safety. Kids are vaping and getting into fights in the washrooms, and some of my daughters’ friends are afraid to use them. The school only has two vice-principals and a principal for its 1,600 kids, and all of these things have to be too much for them to manage. I’ve advocated for placing safety monitors to watch who’s coming in and out of the washrooms. On top of that, the school may need to close its pool due to budget cuts. That pool is one of my daughter’s happy places. She’d be crushed if it were shut down.
Before the Ford government’s takeover of the TDSB, where would you have gone to address concerns like this? I’m on the parent council for the school, and I’m part of East End Parents for Public Education and the Toronto Education Advocacy Network. In the past, we’d bring concerns like this to our trustee, Sarah Ehrhardt. She listened and helped get the school to hire an additional safety monitor, which has been a relief to myself and other parents. Her real strength, though, is connecting parents from different schools together and connecting us to the network of resources that exists between her and the other trustees. Thanks to Sarah, we’ve been able to function as a community. But, now that the trustees have been sidelined, I feel like I’ve lost my democratic voice in decision making. The uncertainty of the new situation is difficult. We don’t know how this is all going to play out, and it’s making me anxious.
Why do schools need trustees? Trustees are parents’ dedicated representatives in the school system. When I voted for mine, I ticked a box on my ballot and said, “I want this person to work for me.” Their job is to push for what they believe is right for parents, students and teachers in their wards. They fight to make the system better. When it comes time for budget talks, they listen to people in their area. They know what’s happening with the people they represent and can push for what they specifically need — which may be different than the needs of the next ward. Without them, it’s going to be much more difficult to advocate for my daughters.
How did you feel as a parent and a resident of Toronto when you heard about the Ford government’s takeover of the TDSB? I was very angry. Our public education system is crumbling, and here’s the provincial government choosing to take over the TDSB after its own budget cuts have hurt our schools. Our kids already weren’t getting what they needed, and it’s not going to get better. A lot of provincial money goes into education, and the TDSB has a lot of real estate. I believe the province would like to get its hands on both.
Some parents think the TDSB was in chaos and advocating through their trustees wasn’t getting them anywhere. What’s your response to them? I’ve spoken to parents across the city, and they’ve all found that they get answers when they talk to their trustees. I know that for me personally, Sarah helped me get connected to her broader network of trustees across the city. From there, we learned about different options to help address our kids’ issues, and Sarah then brought those to the board on our behalf.
The Ontario government has said that the takeover of the TDSB is necessary because of budget deficits and a lack of financial accountability. Do you buy it? The province wasn’t giving enough funding to the TDSB in the first place. For years, there’s been a shortfall between what the board needed and what the province provided, so of course the TDSB now has a budget deficit. It doesn’t have enough money to do what it needs to do, and our public education system is crumbling as a result. It’s certainly interesting that the province is targeting the TDSB for the financial problems the province caused. It feels like the government is trying to break down the education system so it can be privatized.
Paul Calandra, the Ontario minister of education, has suggested eliminating the trustee position entirely. What do you think of that? That would be the end of parents having a voice in the education system. We need to fight to keep the trustees. Truly, I don’t know where else I’d go to get effective support for my children. There’s the school principal or superintendent, but they don’t always have the answers. Without trustees, I’d have to email these new provincial supervisors, but there’s only one for the entire TDSB. I’m not counting on ever getting a reply, and even if I do, it’s going to be much harder for a government-appointed supervisor to push back against the Ministry of Education. I can’t trust them to choose what’s right for students and the community if it goes against the government’s policies. If the province really does remove trustees for good, it would be violating my democratic rights and taking away my voice. These are my kids. For them, there’s no other voice like mine.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
