Endangered stewards: Windsor-Essex school board trustees sound off on passing of Bill 33

Windsor-Essex school board trustees are voicing their opinions on Bill 33. CTV Windsor’s Michelle Maluske reports.

Windsor-Essex school board trustees are voicing their opinions after the Ford government voted on and passed The Supporting Children and Students Act Wednesday morning.

“It doesn’t just clear the path for supervision; I think it annihilates it,” trustee Malek Mekawi told CTV News after the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) meeting Tuesday.

“The actual language of the bill is so broad that the minister now has the powers to take over a board for matters of public interest, whatever that mean may reasonably mean.”

According to Mekawi, before Bill 33, the Ministry of Education could only ‘take over’ or appoint a board supervisor if the budget wasn’t balanced for consecutive years, if the board didn’t follow the Education Act provisions or if an audit found cause for concern.

Five Ontario school boards are already under provincial supervision, but none are in Windsor-Essex or Chatham-Kent.

CTV News has reached out to the ministry to ask if any local boards are being considered for supervision.

“I’m afraid for the future of public education,” GECDSB Chair Gale Hatfield told CTV News.

Hatfield has more than 34 years experience as a trustee.

“I don’t want to see public school boards or any school boards being eliminated. That’s what I want (but) I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

The fate of local trustees weighed heavily on the debate at Tuesday nights local meetings; particularly at the GECDSB, which has two vacancies.

After some debate – which was, at times, heated – trustees voted to post the jobs publicly, interview qualified candidates and appoint two new trustees.

The other option was giving the job to the runner ups in the 2022 election.

After a break to calm down the tone of the debate, trustees voted unanimously on the application process, which is expected to start soon.

“Can we not just work together tonight and do it the right way and move on, please? Otherwise, you know, might be more vacancies,” an exasperated trustee Cathy Cooke said Tuesday.

Endangered stewards

The subject of Bill 33 also came up at Tuesday’s meeting for the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board.

After trustee Lisa Soulliere was re-elected as Chair, she spoke of the challenges they will face.

“We appear to start this final year as endangered stewards of publicly funded education in the province of Ontario,” Soulliere said.

“As the province appears poised to move education forward without us, we must continue to focus on our students and their success.”

Around both board tables, trustees – while frustrated and worried about their fate – did refocus on what they can control, student success.

“We must be focused on the whole of our system and its success,” Soulliere said.

“At this juncture, we are governing one of the strongest school boards in the province of Ontario, and an overarching factor in achieving this is our focus on building strong listening communities that support every student who comes to us for the best possible Catholic education.”

“I have faith in this board. I have faith in our administrators. I have faith in our teachers in the classrooms, and we will never leave our students behind, regardless of any action this government might take,” Hatfield said.

“I don’t think our students and staff will ever have to worry about us leaving them behind. That will never happen with or without trustees.”