Takeovers are not reform: how Ontario keeps avoiding school board governance fixes
Minister Paul Calandra has placed the Peel District School Board under provincial supervision again. Temporary takeovers stabilise boards briefly, but they do not fix the governance model that keeps failing students and local communities.
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By Torontoer Staff
Minister of Education Paul Calandra has announced another provincial takeover of the Peel District School Board. I served as a trustee at Peel between 2014 and 2022 and called for supervision then because the board could not govern itself. What looks like decisive action is often a symptom of deeper policy avoidance.
Takeovers make a clean headline: a minister steps in, a supervisor is appointed, local trustees are sidelined. That short-term show of authority can calm immediate conflict but leaves the causes of dysfunction untouched.
A governance model out of step with modern schooling
Ontario’s school board model asks elected trustees to manage billion-dollar systems, complex labour relations, student well-being programs and heated community politics, with minimal training and unclear authority. Funding, curriculum and many policy levers rest with the province, yet trustees are expected to be accountable for outcomes they cannot directly control.
Elections for trustees typically attract low turnout and little public information, so boards are often populated by people with genuine dedication but without the skills or support needed for governance at scale. When stress fractures appear, the province’s default response is to appoint a supervisor and suspend local decision-making.
Taking over a school board may look decisive. It makes for a clean headline and a show of authority. But it is not reform. It is a symptom of policy avoidance.
Nokha Dakroub, former Peel School Board trustee
Why repeated takeovers are a policy failure
Supervision can stabilise budgets and resolve immediate disputes, but it also reinforces a cycle: allow an inherently unstable model to continue, step in when problems arise, then hand control back without structural change. That pattern discourages the hard work of clarifying roles, building capacity and redesigning accountability.
If ambiguity serves as a lever for provincial intervention, there is little incentive for either trustees or the ministry to clarify responsibilities. The result is recurring crises and repeated disruption for students, families and staff.
Practical reforms that would reduce takeovers
- Define trustee roles clearly: set out whether trustees are policy-makers, community advocates or corporate directors, and align duties accordingly.
- Match authority to responsibility: give trustees control over areas that are billed as local decisions, or acknowledge that those decisions are provincial.
- Provide mandatory training and compensation: professional development, orientation and appropriate pay would improve governance capacity.
- Rethink election formats: improve voter information, consider districting or appointment models where appropriate.
- Establish mediation and escalation frameworks: offer neutral dispute resolution before supervision becomes the only option.
- Create transparent accountability measures: performance metrics for boards and supervisors, with public reporting.
The cost falls on students and communities
Every governance failure disrupts classrooms, erodes trust and drains resources. Students, parents and educators experience the consequences while the institutional debate about roles and authority remains unresolved. Short-term fixes slow outcomes and prolong instability for those who rely on the system most.
Decisive leadership would treat provincial takeovers as a warning, not a solution. That requires confronting difficult questions about local democracy, provincial responsibility and how to equip people to manage public education effectively.
Minister Calandra can continue to rely on temporary supervision, or he can commit to meaningful governance reform that aligns authority with responsibility and strengthens local capacity. Students’ success depends on choosing the latter.
Peel District School Boardeducationschool governancePaul Calandrapolicy reform
