you can run for school board trustee this fall. but it's still unclear when supervision will end
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education minister paul calandra, right, and colleges and universities minister nolan quinn held a press conference on april 13, 2026, about the ontario government's proposed reforms to school board governance.
alan s. hale
/
postmedia
candidates can register for the upcoming trustee elections starting on may 1 — even at the eight school boards under provincial supervision, including ottawa’s largest board.
however, ontario education minister paul calandra won’t say when provincial supervision will end. the ottawa-carleton district school board was placed under provincial supervision last june to address concerns of financial “mismanagement” and growing deficits. as of march, the ocdsb was still looking to cut between $15 million and $20 million.
on monday, april 13, calandra released details about new legislation affecting school board governance and addressed questions about the boards now run by supervisors appointed by the province.
“boards will remain under supervision for as long as it takes to put them on the right track, full stop,” calandra told reporters. “as long as it takes, not only to have them in a balanced budget situation, but they are rebuilding their reserves. as long as it takes to ensure that their communities are confident that the boards are prepared to put students, parents and teachers first.”
meanwhile, under the putting student achievement first act, there will be significant new limitations on trustees in the province’s english boards.
the legislation will limit trustee discretionary expenses and honoraria. trustees at the ocdsb are currently paid an honoraria of about $16,000 a year, plus they get a cellphone on loan and are paid for some expenses such as mileage. under the new legislation, pay will be cut to about $10,000.
the number of elected trustees will be standardized across the province to a maximum of 12. the ocdsb already has 12 trustees, along with two vacant seats. the legislation will also require trustees to pay out-of-pocket for certain external organization membership fees.
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the english school boards will have two separate new top-level administrative roles. the ceo would be responsible for financial and operational oversight. that job will require business qualifications. the “chief education officer” would be appointed by the ceo to “focus on student achievement and required to hold pedagogical qualifications, including ontario college of teachers membership or equivalent.”
the ceo will be responsible for developing a budget and delivering it to the board. trustees will be able to weigh in on it and make suggestions, but not to make changes. the ceo will be a non-voting member of the board, calandra said.
if trustees choose not to support the budget, they can refer to the minister of education for a decision, he said.
it has been widely speculated that calandra would eliminate the role of trustees on english school boards when he introduced the legislation.
one of the reasons for maintaining the role of trustees is to “continue with consistency,” he said.
calandra has also made it clear that he does not want to get into constitutional challenges with the catholic system or charter of rights and freedoms fights with the french-language school system.
speaking to reporters monday, calandra said french boards would have the same limitations on the number of trustees and would not be able to pay membership fees for outside organizations.
school boards spend millions out of the education budget to supports organizations like the ontario public school boards’ association and the ontario catholic trustees’ association, he said.
“we’re not saying that they can’t,” calandra said. “trustees will have to do that out of their own resources that are meant for the classroom.”
he added that the french boards had been “more financially sound” than the english boards.
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“we have to address why, on the english side, we’re seeing declining enrolment and we’re seeing increasing enrolment in private schools across the province,” calandra said.
for trustees who have been sidelined since june 2025, the question is whether to spend the time and money to run for a more limited position that may not even exist for an unspecified period of time.
lyra evans, a former ocdsb trustee, has already announced her intention to run for a city council seat in the rideau-vanier ward.
“i really feel i have accomplished everything i wanted to accomplish as a trustee,” she said. “the province has made accomplishing anything further unviable. they have reduced the ability to cover reasonable expenses like milage. it was already a hard sell to convince people to give up two nights a week for four years.”
lyra, who uses her first name, said trustee candidates typically spent between $5,000 and $10,000 to run for election.
“it wouldn’t just cost people money. we don’t know if we will get back to doing anything,” she said. “there’s no ability to go into the budget. you won’t get the same level of discussion at the school board level.”
donna blackburn had mused publicly about running for city council, but now says she will sign up to run as a trustee again.
“he’s making it as unattractive as possible to be a trustee. is it his goal to make it attractive only to rich people and retired people?” blackburn said. “it will affect the quality of people coming forward.”
blackburn believes the trustees’ role will outlast the current provincial government. when times are good in education, the province takes the credit. when times are bad, trustees are the scapegoats, she said.
but beyond that trustees have an important job, she said.
“people want a phone number to call and know that person is representing them. as a trustee, i can smooth over a situation where a principal and a parent don’t see eye-to-eye. these kinds of things are under the radar,” she said.
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registrations for the upcoming municipal election open on may 1 and candidates have until 2 p.m. on aug. 21 to file their nomination papers. election signs can go up on sept. 11. voting day is oct. 26.
while elections will still be held in october, public school boards will not be returning to a governance role until supervisorships have concluded, calandra said.
“if no one wants to run because the board is under supervision, then that’s fine,” he said. “the ministry has statutory powers to fill those vacancies, and we’ll do it when we feel it’s necessary to do so. or we can simply wait until the board gets returned and have an election at that point.”
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