Let school boards hire the best candidate for CEO

This year it is Peel. Before that it was Toronto Catholic, York and Toronto. Why is it that every year or two, a large Ontario school board erupts in controversy?

Amajor cause is that the province actively prevents school board trustees from hiring the best possible leaders. This has harmed our children in the past and will continue to harm them until the province gets out of the way.

This fall, the Toronto District School Board will be hiring its seventh director of education — its CEO. To date, TDSB’s CEO track record hasn’t been great. While three CEOs skilfully managed daunting challenges and steadily improved the quality of TDSB schools, the other three presided over turmoil until they were forced out in the middle of their contracts.

Fifty-fifty odds aren’t acceptable when dealing with our children’s education, their future. But the province has stacked the deck against students by forcing school boards to only hire former K-12 teachers as CEOs. Outsiders need not apply; if they do, they must not be considered.

During my 11 years as a TDSB trustee, I was involved in hiring three CEOs. Only one of the three was successful. The two failures were the direct result of provincial interference. In one, we attracted more than a dozen excellent candidates after the ministry told us that we could hire a nonteacher. But then they reimposed their “teachers-only” rule, forcing most candidates out of the running, including the two best. One didn’t have the required degree despite an exemplary record of adeptly managing complex contentious education issues. The other, a successful dean of several respected faculties of education, didn’t have K-12 teaching experience. Credentials trumped quality. In the end, we hired the one remaining candidate acceptable to the ministry, only to see him resign two years later in a plagiarism scandal. With the provincial restrictions in place, fewer than a small handful of candidates applied to succeed him. Left with little choice, the board hired a CEO who lasted just two years, during which TDSB staff were constantly distracted from their focus on student well-being and learning.

In a few months, the current TDSB trustees will be hiring a new CEO, one who will manage an organization with as many employees as our largest banks, with as many locations as our largest retailers, and with as many students as the combined enrolment of Ontario’s six largest universities. For the sake of our children, the province must allow TDSB trustees to select from among excellent candidates serving in the broad public sector, including deputy ministers, presidents of universities and colleges, deans of faculties of education, CEOs of hospitals, city managers, etc., as well as K-12 educators.

Several other school boards (including Peel) are also in the market for a new CEO. Minister Lecce has the power to open all these competitions. If he refuses to do this, it will be Ontario’s children who will suffer, and that will be his fault.