As school board deficit spikes anew, Queen’s Park offers update on looming audit

Queen’s Park is still finalizing the framework of a planned probe into the operations and finances of Southwestern Ontario’s largest school board, an education ministry official says.

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In the leadup to the audit – announced after The Free Press uncovered a $38,000 retreat by Thames Valley District school board administrators – the cash-strapped board must remain mindful of all spending, says Edyta McKay.

“While this may take some time, we would like to reiterate our expectation of the Thames Valley District school board and all boards in terms of their obligations to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” she said, “and to prioritize getting that funding into classrooms to support students and teachers.”

It was days into the school year when Queen’s Park announced it would be auditing the board after The Free Press uncovered details of a $38,000 three-day retreat by 18 board administrators to the Toronto Blue Jays stadium hotel.

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From Aug. 19 to Aug. 21, they stayed at the Marriott City Center Hotel, formerly the SkyDome Hotel, located in the Blue Jays stadium. Rooms range from $374 to $1,199 a night, hotel staff say. The Jays were playing on all three dates, against Cincinnati.

Mark Fisher, who had served as education director since 2019, initially defended the retreat as “an industry standard” akin to end-of-summer retreats Thames Valley had organized for several years. Shortly thereafter, he began a paid leave of absence.

The stadium trip came two months after the board slashed its 2024-25 budget shortfall to $7.6 million from $18 million with cuts that included 58 elementary and 24 high school teaching jobs, 17 early childhood educator jobs and four positions in speech and psychological services.

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The deficit has since shot back up to $16.5 million, largely due to enrollment projections that fell short.

Craig Smith, president of the Thames Valley district of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, has suggested the board should be placed under an ongoing supervision order, not just an audit, meaning board officials would be stripped of all power and a supervisor would oversee the $1.2-billion annual budget for a period of time.

“Someone at the ministry has to be looking at this saying: ‘What is going on,’” Smith said. ”Here we are back to where we started – I think they could continue the audit and put them under supervision.”

Smith noted it’s not just Thames Valley facing problems. “It’s endemic through the system. There hasn’t been enough scrutiny (by the Ministry of Education) about how they operate day to day.”

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