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A trustee with the cash-strapped Thames Valley District school board wants taxpayers to know the full cost of a three-day August retreat to the former SkyDome Hotel in Toronto by 18 senior administrators.
“It’s public dollars and the public should know how much was spent,” Lori-Ann Pizzolato said following a Tuesday night debate with a committee of the school board.
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Thames Valley, one of Ontario’s largest boards, is facing a budget deficit of $7.6 million that’s been whittled down by $11 million by cuts to jobs, school supplies and funding for field trips. The board has an annual budget of $1.2 billion.
Two weeks ago, The London Free Press reported that 18 board administrators attended a three-day retreat at the hotel inside the Toronto Blue Jays stadium, where staff say rooms range from $374 to $1,199 a night. The retreat was held from Aug. 19 to Aug. 21, and the Jays were playing at home on all three dates.
Mark Fisher, the board’s top administrator since 2019, defended the trip in a subsequent interview, saying back-to-school retreats for board officials are industry-standard across Ontario. A board spokesperson later stated such retreats “will not continue in the future.”
Monday, school board chair Beth Mai announced Fisher has taken a paid leave of absence from the position of education director, with the board’s former top boss, Bill Tucker, replacing him on an interim basis.
Thames Valley has not publicly detailed the circumstances surrounding Fisher’s leave. Associate director Andrew Canham filled in for Fisher at the committee meeting Tuesday.
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Pizzolato said she had informed Fisher prior to the meeting that the question of cost would be asked. In his absence, associate director Linda Nicholls said she could not “provide specifics as to the amount.”
But, she said, the decision to go on an off-site retreat was made last February.
The cost of the trip will be on the committee’s next agenda in October, said Trustee Marianne Larsen. “(We can) ask staff to have a discussion about these costs that were incurred in August 2024.”
Mai said if she receives the information before that meeting, she would share it with trustees.
The trip has riled parents, taxpayers and union officials with the school board. Craig Smith is president of the Thames Valley local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. He has previously said the board’s budget cuts will be felt “by every student, every teacher” throughout the school year.
“It’s easy to understand why people get their hackles up” over the retreat, he said.
hrivers@postmedia.com
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