SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Conflicted Trustees

This Globe and Mail article reports that a judge has removed the Chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board on conflict of interest grounds because her sons are substitute teachers for the board. There may also be a cloud over one of the other trustees whose daughter is an education assistant at the board.

The newspaper reports all this as if is a big story, but it is my impression that there are very few Ontario school boards without trustees with relatives or friends who work for their school boards. After all, it’s normal for educators to get interested in running for trustee when they disagree with board policy and figure it would make a nice part-time job after they retire from teaching. Or maybe they are encouraged to run for trustee by one of the teachers’ unions. Certainly, most school boards have former teachers among their trustees, along with educators who work or worked for other school boards.

All in all, I’m guessing there are precious few school boards in Ontario that are completely free of conflict of interest issues.