don’t skip school trustees on the ballot

A school trustee represents a ward, like councillors, and is elected to the local school board. Trustees represent the students and families in the community and are supposed to help shape how schools are governed.

Duties include: approving annual budgets and allocating funds, establishing operational policies, bringing family and community concerns to the board and more.

In June 2025, the TDSB and TCDSB were put under provincial supervision, meaning a provincially appointed supervisor holds authority over the decisions normally made by the trustees. It also means trustees can’t do community outreach through their role, such as not being able to engage with families, principals, or parent councils at schools in any official capacity.

This means trustees elected on Oct. 26 will not have their regular powers until the supervision changes. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about your vote. When the supervision ends, the trustees elected this October will have their powers restored.

Do you vote for Trustees? https://thegreenline.to/stories/toronto-municipal-election-trustees-2026/



RESTORE DEMOCRATIC LOCAL GOVERNANCE

Bill 101 known as the Putting Student Achievement First Act, passed in November 2025.  It gives the Ministry of Education the power to:

  • Set a range of 5 to 12 Trustees for each school board. Toronto’s board will drop from 22 to 12 trustees despite it having the largest enrolment of students in Canada

  • Pay for Trustees will be limited to a maximum of $10 000 per year. Previously they have earned between $6 000 and $26 000 each year.

  • Create two new board governance officers.

  • The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who replaces the current Director of Education and must have business qualifications. Trustees may hire the CEO but not fire them.

  • The Chief Education Officer (CEdO), who must have education qualifications and be a member of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT)

  • Put the CEO in charge of developing board budgets with any disagreements between the CEO and trustees referred to the Minister of Education for adjudication.

  • Change collective bargaining by creating a Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) as the central bargaining agent for all English language school boards.

  • CEOs in these boards will ratify central agreements 

    • NB: September 3, 2026 – School boards now need Minister approval to buy land

  • Local agreements will be ratified by the CEO alone in public boards and ratified by CEOs and trustees in Catholic boards

  • Mandate the use of approved learning materials used by teachers in the classroom

  • Bring back written exams for students from Grades 9 – 12

  • Make attendance worth part of course marks in secondary school:

  • It could be worth 15 percent of the final mark for grades 9 and 10 and 10 percent of the mark for grades 11 and 12

  • Excused absences like illness and “holy days” aren’t counted

  • Introduce a condensed 12-month Bachelor of Education programme to be completed over three semesters.

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