Catholic trustees grant themselves assistants

Trustees at the Toronto Catholic District School Board have voted to allow themselves administrative assistants, despite dissent from the chair and a directive from Ontario’s education minister to a sister school board to stop relying on the extra support.

The motion passed late Thursday night, following a closed-door discussion that some questioned, and comes in the wake of budget cuts that eliminated more than 40 special education teaching and educational assistant positions.

Board chair Mike Del Grande was one of two trustees who opposed allotting himself more assistance.

“I voted against it because in the days of making $5,000 a year as a trustee and working a full-time job, I didn’t have any constituency assistants, and I got along fine,” he said.

Del Grande, a former city councillor who served as trustee from 1994 to 2001, noted now that the vote has passed he is “required to support the position of the board” as its head, “whether I like it or not.”

The motion allocates $120,000 in total for administrative support. Each of the12 trustees can draw up to $10,000 for part-time assistants. The new helpers would add to the one “shared” assistant already employed full-time at board headquarters in North York.

Trustee Angela Kennedy, who put forward the motion, said she could use an extra hand to connect with parents in her ward.

“A central administrator is there during office time, 9 to 5, but my job is 24-7. I need somebody who’s in the field, who’s available to me on a Saturday and a Sunday.” Trustee Ann Andrachuk, who walked out of the meeting in protest, questioned trustees’ authority to allow themselves assistants: “There’s nothing in the legislation that allows us to have it.”