By Pepper Parr
August 28th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Tough times ahead for elected school board trustees.
Premier Ford said the public is “done” with what some school boards have done.
“There’s some good and there’s some bad ones,” the premier said Wednesday morning.
“The bad ones like to go to the baseball game and rent a box for $34,000 and in the hotel suites looking over the baseball game that other people can’t afford, and then they say they don’t have money,” he said, referring to a controversy involving a retreat by senior administrators at the Thames Valley District School Board, which the province took control of in April.
Catholic trustees in Brant “decided it would be a great idea to fly to Italy, spend $120,000 … on their junket and their trip, have a great time in Italy, say it’s for Italian artwork and bring back $100,000 of Italian artwork,” Ford said of an overseas trip taken by four elected officials to purchase religious sculptures for schools.
“Last time I went to schools, it’s the kids paintings and everything else that are on the wall,” he added.
Minister Paul Calandra announced at the end of June that he would send supervisors to take over the Toronto District, Toronto Catholic, Ottawa Carlton and Dufferin-Peel Catholic boards.
HDSB Chair Amy Collard
Ontarians are “done” with spending scandals at school boards, and it’s time to hold them accountable, Premier Doug Ford said just days after his education minister said he would consider doing away with elected trustees.
There have not been any complaints about the Halton District School Board. Nor has there been any comment from School Board Chair Amy Collard.
We asked HDSB Chair Amy Collard:
“Do you expect to be making a Statement?”
Her response:
“Thank you for reaching out. I have not issued a statement on this.”
I was surprised at the response. When she was just a trustee and not the Chair Collard was tough, especially during that time when the Board decided to close two of the seven high schools.
We are digging around for comments from other people that are informed and knowledgeable on just what is taking place.
We may well see a situation come October of 2026 when there will not be a trustee positions on the ballot.
That would give Collard an opportunity to run for the Ward 5 Council seat – something she has mused about in the past.
What exactly do these trustees do….?
I am happy to respond to your question. School Board Trustees are the only elected persons whose primary responsibility is to provide publicly funded education. We work with the community and with staff to create the boards Multi-Year Strategic Plan, we hire the Director of Education and monitor his performance and his implementation of the Multi-Year Strategic Plan, we participate in the creation of and approve the annual budget, board policies, and act as liaisons between parents and staff. We bring the concerns of the community to board meetings and hear delegations from the public. We also are a partner in the provincial collective bargaining with unions whose members work in public education. We are paid about $15,000 a year (depending on which part of the province we live in) for this work.
If you have additional questions, please give me a call. My number is on the HDSB website.
To further clarify, this article states that I might run for City Council. I wish to state clearly that I will not be running for City Council. I chose to be a Trustee because I believe in publicly funded education and I wanted to make a difference that would benefit students.
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Amy Collard