{"id":516763,"date":"2026-03-05T21:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516763\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:47:11","slug":"ford-government-takes-over-8th-ontario-school-board-sidelining-trustees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516763\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford government takes over 8th Ontario school board, sidelining trustees"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ford government<\/a> has put an eighth Ontario school board under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, appointing a supervisor to sideline trustees in York Region and confirming a separate takeover in Peel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The latest takeover is one that the government telegraphed more than a month ago.<\/p>\n

At the end of January, Education Minister Paul Calandra took control of the Peel District School Board, appointing himself as temporary supervisor. Simultaneously, he told York Catholic District School Board\u2019s trustees they could be next.<\/p>\n

Calandra is allowed to appoint supervisors to school boards, something recent government legislation made easier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s announcement means a full-time supervisor has been appointed in Peel. Another supervisor has been named for York.<\/p>\n

Heather Watt, a management consultant, will take over the day-to-day running of Peel public. Carrie Kormos, with a background in consulting and casinos, will take over York Catholic.<\/p>\n

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Education Minister Paul Calandra said the moves came as a result of concerns about long-term financial sustainability and \u201cinfighting\u201d among trustees.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAfter careful review, it is clear that both Peel and York Catholic are facing serious challenges that they cannot resolve on their own,\u201d he wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have appointed supervisors to restore sound management, strengthen oversight and ensure every decision is focused on protecting student learning and success.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Calandra put himself in charge of Peel District School Board at the end of January, he said he would listen to arguments from both Peel and York Catholic on why they should not be taken over full-time.<\/p>\n

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They were submitted in February and appear to have been rejected by the government.<\/p>\n

The move is part of a string of school board takeovers that began last year.<\/p>\n

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Both the public and Catholic boards in Toronto are under the direct control of Queen\u2019s Park. So are the two boards in Peel Region.<\/p>\n

Ottawa-Carleton, Thames Valley and Near North district school boards are the other three boards with supervisors.\u00a0Ontario has a total of 72 school boards.<\/p>\n

The boards now directly controlled by the province, however, are responsible for more than 750,000 students in Ontario.<\/p>\n

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Figures for the 2023-24 school year show Ontario had just over two million students.<\/p>\n

The boards under supervision had the following student populations:<\/p>\n

Toronto DSB \u2014 237,679Peel DSB \u2014 148,917Toronto CDSB \u2014 85,923Thames Valley DSB \u2014 84,489Ottawa-Carleton DSB \u2014 77,325Dufferin-Peel CDSB \u2014 71,354York CDSB \u2014 49,478Near North DSB \u2014 10,171<\/p>\n

The province said in a statement its two newest supervisors would look to improve the financial situation at the two boards they are being sent to.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Watt and Ms. Kormos will provide the ministry with regular updates on their work to stabilize the boards\u2019 financial situation, introduce efficiency measures and strengthen overall operational effectiveness,\u201d a news release read.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ford government has put an eighth Ontario school board under the direct control of the Ministry of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,549,13403,44,13404,204500,714],"class_list":["post-516763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-education","tag-ford-government","tag-news","tag-ontario-politics","tag-ontario-school-boards","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}