Thames Valley school board may face Queen’s Park control after audit: Expert

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The Thames Valley District school board may be placed under ongoing supervision by Queen’s Park after an operational audit sparked by a $39,000 travel scandal and questions about executives’ pay, an education analyst says.

Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s education minister, has announced the audit after top official Mark Fisher took a paid leave amid the fallout of a pricey retreat by 18 administrators with the cash-strapped board – and Debbie Kasman, a veteran educator who has worked for the Education Ministry, believes it may go further.

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“My prediction is, after the ministry dives into the salaries . . . I think the board will be put under supervision,” said Kasman, a former principal and executive superintendent.

Thames Valley is Ontario’s fourth-biggest school board. Fisher made $326,000 running it in 2023 – more than the $306,000 paid to the education director running Ontario’s biggest board, the Toronto District school board. A Thames Valley official has said Fisher’s income reflects, in part, “payouts of unused vacation from the COVID-19 pandemic” and would have gone down in 2024.

Seventeen senior leaders at Thames Valley had double-digit increases in pay last year, ranging from 12 per cent to 33 per cent.

If put under a so-called supervision order, Kasman said the Thames Valley board – with an annual budget of roughly $1.2 billion – would be stripped of all power and a supervisor will be assigned to oversee financial decisions for a period of time.

“It’s happened to other school boards in the past,” Kasman said. “That’s the typical trajectory here.”

Edyta McKay, spokesperson for Ontario’s Education Ministry, says there are no plans to place Thames Valley under supervision. “A management audit of the school board’s financial operations, as well as the executive members’ compensation and their administration of the board, is currently underway and we will let that process take its course.”

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The Queen’s Park-led audit was triggered after The London Free Press uncovered details of a three-day August retreat to the hotel in the Toronto Blue Jays stadium that board officials later said cost nearly $40,000. The retreat by 18 board officials was held amid a $7.6-million budget deficit that’s already been reduced by $11 million through cuts to teaching and support positions and funding for field trips.

Days into the school year, trustee Beth Mai announced Fisher was going on a paid leave of absence.

Large increases in pay doled out in 2023 may draw scrutiny, Kasman said.

Kasman said the Education Ministry divides executive pay rates into seven categories based on the size and complexity of the school board. Thames Valley pay is in Category Six, which would suggest an enrolment of between 99,551 and 200,000, she said – far more than the 84,000 students it now boasts.

“Thames Valley clearly falls within a Level Five board,” Kasman said. “There is not a single doubt in my mind the compensation should be there.”

Matt Newton-Reid is a former trustee who served as chair of the Thames Valley school board when it moved to Category Six in terms of pay. At the time, his superintendents were making less than their peers with the London District Catholic board, he said.

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But he said he has questions about increases in executive pay last year.

“Absolutely the (education) minister should be digging into this to understand how this is happening and whether or not a mistake has been made that needs to be rectified.”

HRivers@postmedia.com

Here are the education directors of Ontario’s five biggest school boards, listed from biggest to smallest, and their pay for 2023, the most recent figures available per the province’s so-called Sunshine List:

• Toronto District school board, Colleen Russell-Rawlins: $306,990, around 235,000 students
• Peel District school board, Rashmi Swarup: $292,661, around 153,000 students
• York Region District school board, Bill Cober, unavailable, around 121,000 students (Cober was appointed Aug. 1, 2023)
• Mark Fisher, Thames Valley District school board: $326,000, around 84,000 students
• Brendan Browne, Toronto Catholic District school board: $283,698, around 84,000 students

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