Queen’s Park issues stern reminder to school board as audit plans continue

Queen’s Park has issued a reminder to the deficit-ridden Thames Valley District school board about their responsibility to the public while providing an update on a looming audit of the organization’s finances and executive compensation.

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“With the new year here, we would like to remind the TVDSB and all school boards in the province about their obligations to parents and students, as well as taxpayers, to ensure public funds are being used to support students and teachers in the classroom, ” said Edyta McKay, spokesperson for Education Minister Jill Dunlop.

The London-area board is being audited by the Ministry of Education following a $38,000, three-day retreat for 18 board administrators at the Toronto Blue Jays’ stadium hotel in August, details of which were first reported by The Free Press.

Mark Fisher, education director since 2019, initially defended the retirement as “an industry standard” but went on paid leave in the fallout of the Aug. 19-21 retreat. Soon after, associate director Linda Nicholls followed him.

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Trustees had no knowledge the retreat was being held outside the region, board chair Beth Mai has said.

Also part of the audit will the compensation paid to senior staff. Senior administrators at the Thames Valley board were paid 12 to 33 per cent more in 2023 compared to the previous year.

McKay made the comments this week when asked about a timeline of the audit. She said the probe would “take some time” but didn’t provide an exact end date.

“This is a lengthy process which will be conducted by a third-party auditor,” she said.

In December, McKay said the ministry was finalizing the framework of the planned probe, which was announced days into the school year.

Thames Valley trustees have been faced with a multimillion-dollar deficit for more than a year, but learned recently it has continued to spike and now sits at $16.8 million due to issues that included overestimating the number of students who would enroll in fall 2024.

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Board told officials trustees projected enrollment was about 600 students too high, leading to a $6.4-million cut in provincial funding.

The London-based board previously had slashed its 2024-25 budget shortfall to $7.6 million from $18 million in February 2024. Cuts included 58 elementary and 24 high school teaching jobs, 17 early childhood educator posts and four speech and psychological services positions.

Thames Valley is Ontario’s fourth-largest school board, with 84,000 students at 159 schools across the London region. The board has more than 5,500 teachers and 5,000 occasional staff, and about 2,000 support staff.

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