Missing in action

After years of scathing auditors’ reports about misspending, reports of infighting among staff and trustees and even police-patrolled meetings at the Toronto District School Board, worried parents and educators were due to see a report by August that would recommend solutions to the problems.

The school year is now underway but the report from former Ontario Human Rights Commission chair Barbara Hall has yet to be released, though Education Minister Liz Sandals has received it.

What are parents, educators and trustees to make of the fact the government seems to be sitting on a report that was supposed to “restore public confidence and ensure student achievement and well-being” at a board that’s responsible for $3 billion in spending, educates 232,000 students and runs almost 600 schools?

The report needs to be released so the public can assess whether problems at the troubled board have been resolved through a series of actions taken over the past 10 months by Sandals and Premier Kathleen Wynne, or more still needs to be done.

Hall didn’t have an easy assignment. Her marching orders were to hold public consultations and make recommendations on how to find a “more effective governance structure” for the board.

Among the possibilities Hall’s panel looked at was restructuring the board, perhaps even breaking it up into smaller units (it’s now the largest in Canada.)

She also considered having trustees appointed rather than elected. And she examined the role of trustees after complaints that they were heavily involved in staff duties, such as the hiring of viceprincipals and procurement.

Hall’s report is urgent. Last year things were so tense between staff and trustees that police had to be called in to supervise board meetings and an outside audit found a “culture of fear” at the board. There were complaints that the director of education, Donna Quan, was overly controlling of staff and insubordinate to trustees.

The board’s finances were also in a mess: auditors found $1.3 million in unauthorized raises for senior staff.

Earlier audits found trustees billing taxpayers for everything from nuts to hand lotion.

It’s true that since last December half the 22 trustees are newly elected and have pledged to change the culture at the board. And it’s also true that the new board embraced tough changes ordered by Sandals and Wynne this year, based on an earlier report by veteran educator Margaret Wilson.

Still, a lot of time and money have been spent on the Hall report, and the rationale for it was that it was urgently needed.

Sandals should make the report public so taxpayers can assess whether the newly tasked board is working efficiently now, or even more change is in order. Another school year is at stake.