School Boards in chaos: who pays?
TORONTO – Why do it?
I genuinely feel sorry for Minister Calandra, you know, the Minister for Education. Amid much fanfare, in 2025 he took the proverbial axe to the biggest offenders in Ontario School Board Administration and placed the two Boards in Toronto (Catholic and non) under supervision and replacing the Trustees with a “factotum” to set things right. Two other boards and later a fifth and sixth were added to the list.
Alas, nothing changed. Sixty-six other boards were off scot-free. Trustees were allowed to seek re-election. Worse, the operational arms of the organizations were rewarded with salary increases and new titles. Teacher unions upped their demands for contractual improvements as well. Non-chalance and “up your nose with a rubber hose” seemed to be the operative response by those who were running the education system into the ground.
By way of illustration, the official (re) opening of the Dante Alighieri Academy on Playfair Ave. last October 16, was a complete bust! No more than 40 people, including former and current staff, some Board officials and current students attended the welcome back. The trustee, Maria Rizzo, whose advocacy for a plan to tear do existing infrastructure and replace with a multi use facility, was not there. Gianfranco Cristiano, who is challenging her right to represent the community she tore apart, was.
It is not surprising. The students of the former Academy were exiled to the old Don Bosco site (formerly Keiller McKay S.S.) eleven kilometers to the west. Six hundred of them allegedly said “up your nose with a rubber hose” to the Board. That Don Bosco site is now home to students of Bishop Alle H.S. from southern Etobicoke – eleven and a half kilometers away. Because the trustee from that area, Markus De Domenico, was preserving the alternate site (closer by six kms) for others.
Besides Director/Ceo Brendan Browne approved of both Rizzo and De Domenico and their allies, Angela Kennedy and Ida li Preti, impersonators of Tweedledumb and Tweedledee. No preparatory work has been done for two years since acquisition. No problem. Squandered or spent, it’s only money – yours… After spending more than $30 million to build a new school.
Doctor Browne managed to negotiate a renewal of his contract with a healthy bump-up plus benefits, 14 months before expiry and two months before the board was placed under supervision. The Supervisor, factotum Frank Benedetto, stamped everything with his seal of approval and advised that the Board anticipate a decline in enrolment of a minimum of 600 students in 2026-27.
In the pic below, from left: Markus de Domenico, explaining two reasons why he is running for re-election; Maria Rizzo, who believes that school is just about scribbles; and Gianfranco Cristiano—who declares “new school, new beginning”—along with Father Mario, the parish priest of San Carlo Borromeo, as well as parents and administrators
