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Education Minister Paul Calandra had been signalling that he was going to take over the board.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
The Ontario government is taking control of the Near North District School Board, citing a ministry review that found dysfunction and mismanagement.
It is the sixth school board to be put under supervision this year and the first using the new powers given to the Minister of Education under a controversial bill that passed Nov. 19.
Education Minister Paul Calandra had been signalling that he was going to take over the board, which includes the communities of Parry Sound, North Bay and Mattawa. Last week he said it would take a holiday miracle to avert a takeover.
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Pressure from angry parents to put the board under supervision had been mounting for weeks.
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli and Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Graydon Smith had both publicly called on Mr. Calandra to take the board over in recent days.
The ministry review was launched in response to construction delays in building a new K-12 school.
High school students had to begin this school year doing remote learning and are now attending the high school that was in the process of being torn down, while hundreds of elementary school students were sent to another school.
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The ministry review found that the school board was divided, inexperienced and unwilling or unable to carry out its responsibilities, among other things.
“I will not stand by while a board’s incompetence directly impacts student achievement,” Mr. Calandra said in a news release.
“This decisive action should serve as a warning to any board that is failing in its responsibility to put students first. We are putting school boards on notice that I now have the authority to quickly assume control where there is clear mismanagement and ensure accountability on behalf of parents and teachers.”
Five other boards have already been placed under supervision this year.
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The Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and the Thames Valley District School Board were all placed under supervision after investigations that found financial mismanagement at each board.
Under the Supporting Children and Students Act, which passed last month, the Education Minister is empowered to take over boards for reasons beyond financial ones, including whenever doing so is deemed to be a matter of public interest.
The supervisor for the Near North District School Board will be named soon, the government said in a release.
Mr. Calandra will be providing supervision in the meantime.
