Thames Valley works to grade top official – with few details on his ongoing leave

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As the Thames Valley District school board develops a Queen’s Park-mandated policy for evaluating its education director, the last top boss remains off work but collecting his paycheque after almost three months.

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Education director Mark Fisher – who’d led the London-area public school board since September 2019 – took a paid leave of absence days into the new school year after The London Free Press uncovered details of a $38,000 senior staff retreat to the hotel in the Toronto Blue Jays stadium, taken amid a $7.6-million budget shortfall.

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“The public deserves answers,” veteran educator and analyst Debbie Kasman said of Fisher’s status. “This situation should have been sorted out by now, but sadly, these things often take longer. And sometimes school boards don’t share results with the public.”

Trustee Beth Mai, chair of the school board, didn’t immediately respond to a request for an update on Fisher’s status.

The leave followed Free Press reporting that 18 board administrators attended a $38,000, three-day retreat at the hotel inside Toronto’s Rogers Stadium, where rooms range from $374 to $1,199 a night, hotel staff say. The retreat was held from Aug. 19 to Aug. 21, and the Jays were playing at home on all three dates.

Associate director Linda Nicholls has also been off work on a paid leave of absence following the Blue Jays scandal.

Thames Valley’s $7.6-million deficit for 2024-25 has been reduced by $11 million through job cuts, including 82 teaching positions, and cuts to school supplies. The board also reduced field-trip funding for students by half to $500,000. Thames Valley’s annual budget is approximately $1.2 billion.

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The major drivers of the deficit are unfunded statutory benefits, unfunded short-term supply staff costs for absences and a lack of funding for special education costs, board officials have said.

Revelations of the high-end retreat sparked outrage with parents, union leaders and the public and led to a sweeping probe of the board’s operations and finances by the Ministry of Education.

Interim director Bill Tucker hasn’t said why either senior staff member is off work.

“I think it’s important the public know why they are on leave,” Kasman said. “We are dealing with taxpayers’ dollars here.”

In 2023 Fisher’s income was $326,000 or about $27,000 a month, according to Ontario so-called Sunshine List that tracks public sector employees who earn more than $100,000 annually.

Mary Henry, president of CUPE Local 4222 that represents 1,600 board employees, said some union members make less than $30,000 a year.

“That’s a year’s salary for a CUPE member,” she said of the Toronto retreat’s cost.

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Henry said the board “should be obligated to share with the public why they are off while being paid” by the board. “As well they should be sharing what has been resolved during the audit that has been occurring.”

In a meeting Monday, a committee reviewed terms of reference for appraising the education director’s performance before moving into closed session.

A requirement of the Education Act, the newly amended policy means trustees must evaluate an education director’s performance on a yearly basis using a number of measures.

“The performance appraisal process is intended to strengthen the organization, making it more cohesive, viable, accountable, and proactive in serving the needs of students and the broader board of trustees community,” according to the policy that was distributed by the board to its community.

Thames Valley is Ontario’s fourth-largest school board, with 84,000 students at 160 schools across the London region.

Fisher is a McGill University graduate who started teaching in the Toronto-area’s Durham District school board. He came to Thames Valley from the same board, where he was a superintendent.

hrivers@postmedia.com

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