![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 6 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s new education law is meant to make it easier for the province to take control of school boards it says \u201cfall off the rails.” <\/p>\n
Education Minister Paul Calandra made that comment last week. <\/p>\n
His Progressive Conservative government passed the Supporting Children and Students Act<\/a>, also known as Bill 33<\/a>. It then quickly received royal assent.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve made it very clear from the very first day I took office that I was not going to allow the system to remain the same, that I was going to do everything in my power to put school boards back on track,\u201d Calandra said.<\/p>\n While the legislation is new, there were five school boards already under the control of the provincial government when it passed. <\/p>\n And in the Windsor area, supervision is a not-too-distant memory for one board.<\/p>\n LISTEN | When Windsor’s Catholic school board was taken over by the province:<\/strong><\/p>\n Windsor Morning10:53When the Windsor-Essex Catholic school board fell deep into a deficit, the province stepped in, sidelined trustees, and took control of the books<\/p>\n In 2012, the then Liberal government appointed a supervisor to takeover<\/a> the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB) because of a heavy and growing deficit.<\/p>\n The board had been in financial disarray for years, and failing to present a balance budget violated the Education Act and prompted the provincial oversight.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul Picard was the board\u2019s director of education at the time. He came into the role in 2010 when a lot of the deficit had already accumulated<\/a>.<\/p>\n He says the supervisor quickly expedited and executed necessary tough decisions and cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have trustees who are responsible to electors and \u2026 [who] want to get reelected. There’s some reluctance to make the difficult choices. And so at that juncture, I think the ministry stepped in to to provide assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n The deficit came about, according to Picard, in large part because of cost increases and a high percentage of expenditures falling under collective agreements \u2014 things that are \u201cuntouchable.\u201d<\/p>\n He says enrolment was also decreasing at the time negatively impacting the board\u2019s cash flow.<\/p>\n Picard says administratively his team wasn\u2019t shut out when supervisor Norbert Hartmann took the wheel.<\/p>\n However, that wasn\u2019t the case for trustees.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were informed but they had no significant voting input to it. They could make their voices heard and they could listen to the constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n Picard says more provincial input can also end up being a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n The ministry lifted its board supervision in the fall of 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cOn one side there’s going to be people saying \u2026 local autonomy begins to erode, but on the other side, to get in this constant cycle of deficit financing, it’s going to reach a critical point to where it is impacting \u2026 the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n Trustee impact<\/p>\n Picard says he believes trustees don\u2019t always have sufficient information available to them \u201cto know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven if they do, the influences on them politically \u2026 to be reelected in a small constituency makes them unwilling to very often make extremely difficult decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n He says if and when there ends up being dysfunction within a trustee group, that can further exacerbate problems.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re wasting a whole lot of time spinning your wheels in the mud trying to trying to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa Soulliere is the WECDSB trustee chair who was also a trustee back when the province took over the reins 13 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n She says the new education law feels much different than what the imposed supervision was in 2012.<\/p>\n Soulliere believes the same outcome to get out of a deficit position could\u2019ve been achieved back then had the ministry dialogued with trustees in a \u201cmeaningful way\u201d to understand contractual and financial issues at play.<\/p>\n \u201cThe supervisor was responsible for making decisions that we would normally debate and vote on,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGoing through supervision was very difficult for trustees and administrators.\u00a0 Student success and community relationships were not negatively impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n Three trustees at Windsor\u2019s public board have resigned within the last year citing different reasons.<\/p>\n Nancy Armstrong was the latest to step down<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763998339_730_default.jpg\")
Paul Picard was the director of education for Windsor’s Catholic school board when the province took it in 2012 over due to a big deficit. (Amy Dodge\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763998341_835_default.jpg\")
The Windsor Essex Catholic School Board had a provincial supervisor take over the organization in 2012 for just over one year because of a large budget deficit. (CBC)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763998343_371_default.jpg\")
Bill 33 made changes to the Education Act could have significant effects on how school boards are operated and the future of elected trustees. (Trevor Wilson\/CBC)<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763998344_778_default.jpg\")
The Greater Essex County District School Board has seen three trustees leave their positions in the past year. (CBC News)<\/p>\n