School board to recoup $38K retreat costs – from officials’ expense accounts

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The cash-strapped Thames Valley District school board will recoup the $38,000 that 18 officials spent on a three-day retreat at the Toronto Blue Jays stadium hotel, though the senior administrators who attended won’t be out of pocket.

The money will come from senior staff members’ expense accounts, which is a perk of their employment contracts, said interim education director Bill Tucker, who took the helm after Mark Fisher went on a paid leave following Free Press reporting on the summertime staff retreat.

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“They (administrators) did it willingly and there was very little discussion,” Tucker said. “They came up with that idea. They all voluntarily repaid the $38,000 from those accounts into a fund. I have been looking for a way to return that money to kids.”

The money will go to a learn-to-swim program for students, Tucker said.

In late August, The Free Press reported that 18 administrators with the school board, amid a $7.6-million deficit, attended the three-day retreat at the former SkyDome hotel, where hotel staff say rooms range from $374 to $1,199 per night. The Jays were playing on all three dates, against Cincinnati.

The Toronto retreat scandal sparked an operations audit by Queen’s Park, which will dive into the financial operations of Thames Valley, Ontario’s fourth-biggest board, as well as the executives’ compensation and their administration of the board, education ministry officials have said.

At the time of the pricey retreat, which didn’t involve elected trustees, the school board’s $7.6-million budget shortfall had already been slashed by $11 million with cuts to jobs, school supplies and money for field trips.

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Said Tucker on Monday: “Our job is provide the best educational experience as possible for every student in a fiscally responsible manner, that is my belief ever since I became a teacher.”

But for Jay Goldberg, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, the repayment of the trip through expense accounts isn’t enough.

“To me, this is something that should absolutely come out of their pockets,” he said. “It’s not something that should be an expense to taxpayers. This is really semantics. I don’t see it as a major difference at all.”

Tucker says the 18 administrators and senior officials who went to the retreat were there as a job requirement. “There was an expectation they were to attend.”

Craig Smith is president of the Thames Valley district of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). He said recovering the more than $38,000 from expense accounts “marks a step in the right direction” after the spending scandal.

“Taking resources from those who don’t need support and redirecting it to those who do is always a good thing,” he said.

Trustee Beth Mai, who chairs the school board, last month made public the full cost of the retreat, $38,444.92. It broke down as follows:

• Travel: $5,468.09
• Accommodations: $19,778.02
• Meeting rooms and meals: $13,198.81

Last week, The Brantford Expositor reported that four trustees with the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic school board took a $45,000 trip to Italy so they could buy $100,000 worth of religious art for a new Brantford high school. It sparked a Queen’s Park governance review, and the trustees pledged to pay back the trip’s cost.

hrivers@postmedia.com
@HeatheratLFP

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